Sibling Hikes/Excursions

This is the fourth year that Mary and I have done our own hikes/excursions with our siblings (Mary with her siblings, me with my bro's and my dad). Mary's info is down below mine.
This year for our hike we went to the Alpine Wilderness Area in the Cascades, which is where we spent most of our time as Scouts. We had never done this hike before but Mary and her siblings did this hike their first year and we had planned to do it two years ago but they had fire in the area that year. This was the first year that Robb was able to go, and it was fun to have him. Jordan and my Dad and I have gone every year and we had Braden two years ago with us. Next year we hope to have everybody (including Chris). We camped at Hyas Lake and visited Little Hyas Lake as well as Tuck Lake. It is right near Deception Pass and Hyas Lake is just below Cathedral Rock. Mary and I and the kids drove over to Robb and Heather's on Wed evening and then Robb and I got up early and met my Dad and Jordan in Cle Elum, WA and headed up to the trailhead.

We had, as usual, a great time. This was the best weather we've ever had and that made it that much better (last year we had snow in September and two years ago it rained most of the time... and Braden had some explosive trots). We enjoyed playing "Greed" (a fun dice-game learned from Mary's family) and just chatting and being outdoors. One of our main criteria for selecting a site is that we want to be able to have a fire, which is a must and we enjoyed having one this year.

Some highlights:
-No one had the trots
-It didn't snow
-It didn't rain
-It wasn't cold
-Robb got bit by a mouse... in his tent (AWESOME - and it would only happen to Robb if you know our family! - I love you Robb!)
-Being far enough away from my Dad to not hear him snoring.
-Beautiful location
-The rotating "chair hierarchy" based upon your place (1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th) in the last game of dice - that made the game a little more competitive.
-Trying to catch the chipmunk

Anyway, we had an absolute blast and look forward to doing it next year. Here are some pics:

Here we are at our camp before we headed out on our day trip up to Tuck Lake. It was a great day-trip!
I always wish that most of the pictures that are taken are more close-up. This picture is an exception... and I'm sure you'll agree. Jordan's the tan one, I'm the short one. We did actually go "swimming" (we didn't actually swim, but we did all fully submerge in water above our heads, even if it was very brief for Robb and I).
We had one chipmunk that was everywhere in the camp and into anything it could possibly get into... except our bucket. We had him on several occasions but the bucket would over tip and he would scamper out. We were disappointed that we never actually got him.
As the pic above of Robb, me and Jordan attests, this really was a brutal climb, more steep then any other hike that I've been on. I understood why everyone that we passed coming down had hiking poles as it seemed like almost a safety necessity that we were lacking while coming down.

Here we are way up above Hyas Lake and that's Cathedral Rock right above us in the background. We are less than 1/4 mile from Tuck Lake at this point and are looking forward to lunch and an extended break. This provided a nice lookout.
Here we are at Tuck Lake for lunch on Friday. Although we were ambitious and wanted to go to the upper lake (Robin Lakes), our legs and stamina were telling us otherwise. After all, wisdom is the better part of valor, right!

I'm hoping that the pic above and the pic below can be merged to include all of us together (Rebecca?)... or at least we tried to set it up that way. We couldn't get the timer thing on the camera to work (Operator Error?).

Here we are next to the Roslyn Cafe, where we ate lunch on the way home. It's always nice to eat at a decent restaurant after a good couple of days in the wilderness. I'm sure the other customers don't always appreciate our ora, but we enjoy ourselves. My Dad always loved the show Northern Exposure which was filmed in Roslyn, so it was fun to drive through the town and to eat lunch there.


Every year for Mary's gathering either she or her sister has been pregnant and the other one that is not pregnant has had a nursing infant with them. And, believe it or not, this is the first year that they didn't go hiking! When one is carrying a baby and the other is pregnant, you can imagine that Mary's brothers have had to carry A LOT of the weight when they would hike... and that's certainly been the case. They're real troopers! This year they went to McCall over Labor Day weekend and enjoyed their time up there playing games and talking and enjoying the beauty of McCall. Here are some pics of their time up in McCall:

Mary with her younger brother Kris with Jane. Thanks for making the drive Kris!
Mary with her older brother Michael... thanks for making the flight, then the drive!
Kris working diligently on the fire they had in the firepit we built this summer. Why is he building a fire you might ask? For Foil-Dinners...yummi!
Here's Michael multi-tasking: talking on the phone to his "girlfriend" and putting together some foil-dinner goodness.
Here's Michael on the phone again - but hiding it. Mary & Kris gave him 5 minute time limits which he pretty much kept - except in the wee hours of night. This is one drawback of not being in the wilderness - technology.

Dad's Surprise B-Day... 2 weeks ago

So I haven't posted on this yet because I keep waiting for my mom or dad to email me their pics of the golf trip that me and my brothers went on Saturday morning (they have told me they will). We had a great time over at Robb & Heathers and my dad got surprise after surprise as first we showed up, then Rebecca and Ruby and then Braden and Amanda. It was awesome and he had absolutely no clue. Here are some pics and I'll refer you to Rebecca and Heather's blogs for further descriptions. So here are some pics from our end.

Here is a pic of Dad, Sarah, Ruby and Nathan preparing to blow out Dad's amazing home-made ice cream cake. As has been previously noted on other blogs, Heather took the Hamm Ice-Cream Cake tradition to a whole new level. If you can't tell what that is it is supposed to be a golf course with sand traps (brown sugar) and everything. It looked and tasted amazing!

We made a trip to Red Robin for lunch on Saturday. It was a lot of fun but it's hard to find a table for 16. When the prego's (Mary and Amanda) have their babies that will bring the Hamm clan up to 20! Crazy!

Here is Nathan and Sarah and Hailey helping Opa open his outdoor fireplace gift from the Pierce's, Robb & Heather, and Braden & Amanda.

I paid for Dad's golfing trip and it was SO FUN. We couldn't have had better conditions. We had an 8 am tee time and never had anyone breathing down our five-some's back until the last whole. The weather was great and the company and conversation was so much fun. We did some golfing (if that's what you want to call it) too!

Sledding in McCall

McCall is just beautiful in the winter, particularly when you're surrounded by trees and it's been snowing so much. On Saturday we took advantage of the snow and took the kiddos out for some fun. Although Nathan screamed while we got him dressed, he loved it once he was outside. Oma and Opa joined us as well and it was nice that Jim, Peggy and Warren's cabin has a driveway that acts as a mild kid-sized snow hill. It was easy just to walk outside and sled on their driveway.

Here's Nathan and Sarah on the porch before they embark into the white snowy bliss!

Jim and Peggy had this sled that works great for kids because it has a back and you can just sit them down and send them on their way. It was great to have!

Here'sNathan and Opa on a trip down the driveway. They ran into the snowbank, which turned out to be a somewhat frequent occurrence for everyone that tried the hill.

Daddy and Sarah squeezing onto a saucer-sled.

Nathan and Daddy trying to avoid the snow bank

Sarah piggy-backing on top of Opa, she was squeeling the whole way!

Nathan on a solo trip down the hill, always smiling!

Nathan and Oma after a sledding trip where they were backward most of the way!

Daddy and Nathan on one of our trips down the hill, with Opa supervising.


Daddy and Nathan preparing for a trip while Sarah and Opa look on.


Sarah on one of her solo trips down the hill.

Sarah and Daddy pulling Nathan up to the top of the hill for another trip down. The cabin is in the background.
Sarah wanted to help Daddy give Nathan a good pull down the hill on one of his solo trips. She forgot to let go of the rope the first time, this is the second (successful) attempt.

Nathan at the bottom of the hill after a solo trip.

We had a great time sledding and when it was time to go in, after at least an hour or so, the kids probably would have been happy to stay out longer but they were also content to be done and get into the warmth. It was a really fun time and I just realized that Mary isn't in any of these shots. I hope Oma and Opa took some pics of her because she did take several turns down the hill with the kids and the four of us used Jim and Peggy's large tobagan to take a trip down. I'm sure Oma and Opa will put the photos on their blog soon enough (hint, hint)!