July 2020 Road Trip to Oregon: McCloud Waterfall Trail

Saturday afternoon, July 18, we drove to Redding. We were surprised to find most hotels filled, but we found a Super 8 with vacancies that worked out fine. Sunday morning we got sunscreened up and did the 3.5-mile McCloud Waterfall Trail, which goes by three falls. Tiny got silly by the lower falls: 

I love when my Big E holds my hand.

We didn't stop at the middle falls because we wanted to finish the hike before it got really crowded. The middle falls were the biggest, prettiest, and most crowded.

The upper fall:

We had a bite to eat.

Then we jumped in. Jim went first. He swam out for a second and then immediately swam back and got out as quickly as possible. The water was freezing.

Then I mustered the courage and got in. It takes me a while, but once I get in, I stay in a lot longer. So I guess you could say I'm much stronger than Jim. I wasn't planning on swimming so had to make do with my pants and sports bra. I should have known to be prepared, as our motto is, "Swim in every body of water."

The girls all wanted to get in, so I had to get in repeatedly with them. They all freaked out when they hit the water because it was so dang cold.

After everybody had had his fill of the frigid water, we headed back down.

There's a place to jump down by the lower falls. The girls were so ready to be done, but Jim was adamant that we had to jump. And so it was. (Our second family motto: "It's always better to do something and go somewhere than to do nothing and go nowhere.")

We drove to Ashland, Oregon that night and passed a fire on the way. 

We had a loose itinerary for the trip (prepared by Jim) but no hotels booked in advance. Every day, as we determined where we wanted to stop for the night, I got on hotels.com and looked for the cheapest decent-looking place. This place was OK, especially compared to places we'd get later in the trip. Tiny was "cutie baby" that night - her super-snuggly alter ego. She gave us such lovings. 

July 2020 Road Trip to Oregon: Collins Lake

On Wednesday, July 15, we left on a nearly two-week road trip to Oregon. Jim worked a half-day, and then we took off as soon as we could after that. This was the stack of books we brought on our trip: 

Ever was going to read Capitol Mysteries to the littles. (She's already read the series.) She wanted Nancy Drew for herself. She and I were reading The Mystery of the Treasure Seekers. The littles and I were in the middle of The Witches. I was reading The First Four Years to all the girls, and we were going to read Little House on Rocky Ridge after that. Jim was reading Hattie Big Sky to all the girls, although Tiny wasn't that into it. He was also reading The Return of the Indian to all of them, and in case they finished that one, The Secret of the Indian was the next and last in the series. I took A Wrinkle in Time in case all three girls and I needed another book to read together. So there you have it. 

Many of the books were neglected on the trip, but we quickly finished The Witches. The girls were obsessed with my accent (which is in the book, but I exaggerated it). Months later, Tiny still frequently says, for no reason, "The vitches of Inkland!" I finished The First Four Years. I started and finished A Wrinkle in Time, thanks to several hours of reading on the last day. I got very emotional at the end, so it was quite a dramatic performance. I started Rocky Ridge. Jim gave me a break from reading, while I gave him a break from driving, and he read some Hattie Big Sky at the end. The girls are ruthless story-listeners. I read hour upon hour upon hour, and if I ever stopped to say anything to Jim - even to help him navigate - or to rest or take a drink or anything, they'd yell, "Mom! Read!" It was brutal. No one has ever read so much.

Back to Wednesday - I read, Jim drove, and we made it to a hotel outside Sacramento. A guy was sitting in his car in the parking lot, pumping music and blocking the gate. Then on our way up the stairs and around the building to our room, we passed some really sketchy characters. I was pretty frightened of the place, to be honest. Jim had to go back out to get something from the car, and I was relieved when he returned to the room safely. 

Thursday morning we found a pastry shop for a malnourishing breakfast.  

Then we finished the drive to Collins Lake to meet Dawn and Ed, who'd been camping there all week. They reserved a site for us just a few spots down from theirs and had set up a canopy tent by the lake near our site. They took us out on the lake that afternoon, and the girls did some tubing. 

Ever was eager to try wakeboarding but wanted someone else to go first. Jim showed us how it's done. He never falls; he rides and rides until his arms are finally tired enough that he lets go or tells us to stop. He's amazing.

Ever tried her hand. Jim swam out to get her situated. It took her a number of tries to get up, but she was determined. Once she got it, though, she got up easily every time. We were so excited for her when she started doing it.

Ed cooked us all dinner that night. They provided and prepared all the food, which was so nice. We discovered when we set up camp that my sleeping bag had not made it into the car, despite my being sure I had put it in its stuff sack at home. I put a towel under me and a towel over me. It was hot when we first settled in, although I did get a little cold in the middle of the night. 

 

Dawn tipped us off that there were a ton of wild blackberry bushes near the entrance to the lake. The littles slept in a bit Friday morning, so Jim and Ever went blackberry picking alone. Then Ed make us pancakes and sausage for breakfast, which we enjoyed with our blackberries. Dawn remembered the girls' love of Nutella and whipped cream, so the pancakes were decked out in all the favorite toppings. 

We went out on the lake, and Ever and I improved at wakeboarding. Jim and I wanted to take the girls to Bridgeport, and Friday was the only day we could go. It got late, though, and we debated. Finally Jim made the call, and we headed out. We didn't totally know where we were going, so we took some detours. The girls fell asleep in the car and were still asleep when we finally found the place. We sat in the car in the parking lot and let them sleep. By the time we hit Bridgeport, it was really late. The girls really enjoyed it, though, and we were glad we went. We swam up the river as far as we could go. It was really exciting that all three girls could swim on their own. Swimming is the best milestone. I thought they'd be into jumping off the rocks, but they only jumped once. Jim and I remembered the water as being really cold, and I was concerned because we didn't get started until so late. The water was not bad, though, and we were able to have a good jaunt upriver without getting too chilly. This is the only pic we have, of the girls as we arrived:

Jim had promised the girls ice cream. We barely made it back to Collins Lake in time to get some from the ice cream shop there before it closed. It was a late night. While were were at Bridgeport, Dawn and Ed had set up a giant fan by our tent because we'd mentioned it was hot the first night. So nice. And I believe even though everyone was exhausted and it was crazy late, we still read before bed because that's our thing when we camp. 

Saturday morning we all went berry picking together.

Deer sighting:

We had another breakfast feast courtesy of Dawn and Ed. 

We went back out on the lake. Ever was so tired she appeared on the verge of passing out. 

We explored the far end of the lake.

Tiny was also very tired.

We docked in a quiet area and swam.

Then we did some more wakeboarding. The littles got restless on the boat and jumped in the water every chance they got. When anybody went down while wakeboarding, they jumped in and swam until the wakeboarder was ready to go again. 

Exhausted, white-faced Wrenzy also did some flag duty. (You're supposed to hold up a flag to signal when a wakeboarder is down in the water.)

Tiny tried to nap.

There was more tubing.

We had a great time. Dawn and Ed did all the work and were such gracious hosts. We said our goodbyes Saturday afternoon and continued our drive north.

Tiny Turned Four

Tiny brainstormed for months about her birthday and all the things she wanted to do (backpacking, hiking, camping, ice skating, surfing, and a bunch of other things). In the end, her real requests ended up being as follows: crepes for breakfast, Little House on the Prairie (the first episode is longer than the others, TV-movie length), swim in Cikaneks' pool, chicken nuggests for lunch, play on the tramp, piñata, hot dogs for dinner, and s'mores for the birthday dessert. It was the most mellow birthday ever, and she was perfectly satisfied with it. 

I decorated the traditional "birthday chair" with crepe paper and balloons so that on her birthday morning, Tiny was greeted by that and all her presents. Jim had bought her some random stuff already, and then he asked her about a week before her birthday what she wanted. To our surprise, she rattled some things off like a ruby and a stuffie. So he tried to make all her dreams come true by also buying everything she asked for. She ended up with a giant ball (like an exercise ball), a bean bag chair, Black Stallion, an elephant stuffie, and maybe more. Then  Ever bought her an apron, and Wrenzy gave her a unicorn stuffie. It ended up feeling like quite a haul. Later I asked Tiny if she liked her bean bag chair, and she said, "So much. I love it as much as I love Ever's elephant. And that's way more than a thousand. That's how much I love every one of my presents." It was very cute. 

The girls watched the first episode of Little House on the Prairie and passionately loved it. I'd never seen the show, and it's really heart-warming. I can't overstate how much I love my girls' love of it. 

Tiny got some solo reading time with Daddy out of one of the books he reads just with her (as opposed to the book we read to all the girls together, the book I read just with Ever, and the book I read just with the littles; we have a lot of books going at one time). 

I don't have any photo proof, but I believe we did swim in Cikaneks' pool.

We grilled hot dogs and burgers with Cikaneks for dinner. Then we finally used the unicorn piñata that we bought last year and forgot to pull out on her third birthday. Noah and Nathan helped the girls whack it. It leaked candy for a while and died a slow death, so everybody got plenty of hits.

In an effort to avoid giving their boys more sugar, Scott and Rebecca took them home before we made s'mores on the fire pit. 

Tiny took her s'mores on chocolate graham crackers. I knocked the top off to insert the candle.

It was a lovely summer evening. The girls took out the hula hoops, and Ever showed off her mad skills.

Tiny at four: 

She is our wildest, most carefree child. She chatters nonstop. We were in the kitchen once while she was going on and on, and Jim said, "Can you say 'incessant'?" I love her babble. 

She's made great strides in the eating arena and now eats some fruits and vegetables. Apples, oranges, avocados, oatmeal, yogurt (often with Grapenuts), cheese, and Mexican food are favorites. And of course snack food and all the treats. She LOVES treats. She still drinks "watermilk" (milk), although Jim and I started rationing her a long time ago so she wouldn't fill up on that instead of food, so now maybe she doesn't get enough. 

She generally pees in her undies multiple times a day - not enough to get on the floor (that I know of) but enough to make me really exasperated, especially since she's been doing it for months and there's no end in sight. And she plans to sleep in diapers forever. 

She's hilarious and silly. She has multiple alter egos - Normal Baby, Cutie Baby, and Ever's Kitty are the main ones. Sometimes she's Normal Baby Who Loves Mommy, and she snuggles with Mommy. Sometimes she's Normal Baby Who Loves Daddy, and Daddy gets the snuggles. When she's Cutie Baby, she's super affectionate with everyone and covers parents and sisters in kisses and hugs. Cutie Baby is our favorite, obviously, and she used to visit a lot. Lately (I'm writing this in September), she promises appearances by Cutie Baby but isn't delivering so much. I'll be devastated if she's growing out of her extreme-affection phase. 

Tiny loves nature and always asks to climb any mountains or visit any snow we see. She asks to go hiking and camping. She's brown-skinned and an amazing little fish. It still makes me so very happy to see her jumping into the pool, swimming down deep, and being totally confident in the water.