The Rest of June

Jim got GoldiBlox for the girls because it's an engineering, make-kids-smart type of toy. It hasn't been used too much over the years, but in recent months Tiny has been taking it out not quite frequently and making outside-the-box creations.

We had a low-key Father's Day, in keeping with tradition. The girls gave Jim a makeover, and I made his favorite simple pasta dish for dinner and yellow cake with chocolate frosting for dessert.

Ever spent countless hours making a Father's Day card. So many hours. She wasn't happy with her first attempt at the inside, so she cut a piece of white paper and glued it in so she could start over. So much time. Then right after Jim looked at the card and put it on the counter, I knocked a cup of water over and ruined it. Fortunately, I was able to move the card out of Ever's line of sight and then toss it a few days later without her knowing. Front:

Inside:

Back cover:

Tiny has taken to peeing in her undies all the time. Most days I discover that her undies are wet at least once and sometimes four times. Only once or twice has the accident been bad enough to make it to the floor. Usually even her dresses are unscathed; it's just an undies issue. Once, though, I discovered a brown smear on the floor in the closet and confronted her. She had put poopy undies in the hamper and donned clean ones without involving me. I think it was about a day or two later that I discovered this in the same room, just outside the closet:

It was very upsetting. The uncontrolled peeing has continued, but at least the pooping has not. 

Wren is a most luminous, angelic creature. Once when she was particularly lovely with hair in pigtails, leotard on, and face glowing, I tried to capture it, but I failed.

Ever and Leela did two back-to-back weeks of surf camp through the City of Oceanside. The days are long - 8:30 to 3:30 - and the kids are at the beach the entire time. I believe they have six half-hour surf sessions, a long lunch break, and a free hour at the end. It wore the girls out, and two consecutive weeks were not ideal. (We only did that because those were the only two weeks of summer break that Leela and Ever were both available.) The real problem, though, was the blisters. At the end of day 1, Ever had really bad blisters on her fingers and palms. By the end of day 2, she was debilitated by them. I had to bathe her when she got home because she was afraid of putting her hands in the bath water or using them in any way. They were so awful. Apparently the boards were just really rough and she has super-sensitive skin. Leela got blisters after a few days, too, but hers weren't as bad. Anna managed to get the last pair of kid surf gloves from a local surf store. Jim and I ended up ordering three different pairs from Amazon, so Ever had some not-great options for the second week. She used them a couple days but mostly refused to wear them. One pair were gardening gloves, and she wouldn't even consider those. The best-looking ones were way too big, although she wore those and the third pair a little. Mostly I think she just opted to deal with the pain because the gloves were not cool and probably embarrassed her. 

Each Friday, they held a surf contest. The first week, Anna and I got there a little late. Ever and Leela's heat had started, and we couldn't find Ever anywhere. It turned out she'd been sucked down the beach and out of the judging zone, so I think she sort of forfeited that contest. Leela won their heat and Camper of the Week. Ever was bummed, but she managed to hold it together until we parted ways with Leela. 

Ever was determined, however, to win the second week. I was super proud of how she did that Friday. She caught tons of waves and did all the tricks over and over. She'd catch the wave (white water), stand up, jump and switch her forward foot, sit down and drive the bus (hand motions similar to the ones Christian used to tease Bag Lady about becoming a bus driver), lie down and cross her arms over her chest (they call that "coffin"), then sit back up and drive the bus again. Leela caught the waves from a little farther out so had longer rides and was very steady, but she didn't do as many tricks. For some reason Jim had that afternoon off and was able to come watch the contest, and he thought Ever deserved to win. The judges gave her second place and Leela first, though, and Ever was totally devastated. She barely managed to pull it together in time to take Anna up on her offer to take her with their group for ice cream.

These are all the surf camp pics I have. (Note Wrenzy's fancy hair in the bottom left corner of this first pic. Maddie Sorenson must have babysat that morning.)

 

It seems that Leela is becoming a giant compared to Ever.

That second week, the Subrebosts' family friend, 14-year-old Brooke, stayed with them and did the camp too. She was in the second heat of the contest, and after she finished, she took the littles out for rides on her board. It actually made me nervous, but they had fun. This is Wren and Brooke on the blue board and Ever on the yellow board:

Ever, Brooke, and Leela:

Ever had another Zoom piano recital.

JoAnn came by and dropped some clothes and other stuff for the littles. Her daughter finds all sorts of free stuff for the girls.

Not that Tiny needed any more dress-up dresses.

Ever begged me to curl her hair, and I put it off as long as I could. (Which was years.) Finally one Sunday, she reminded me that I had said the previous Sunday that I'd do it the next Sunday, and I was stuck. I have minimal experience curling my own hair and no experience curling someone else's hair, but thanks to the curling wand Coco gave me, it turned out pretty well. She's really growing up. I also did Tiny's hair (see background), but Wren opted out.

Sometimes Wrenzy gets creative with her food. I thought adding bell pepper to her peanut butter honey tortilla roll-up was a mistake, but she ate it.

The girls and Nathan and Noah swam at Leela and Rafi's. Rebecca ordered pizza, and the girls ate on one side of the pool while the boys ate on the other. Rafi crossed the picket line, much to Nathan's horror, after this picture was taken.

June Hikes - Pinhead Peak and Tenaja Falls

Jim had scheduled a week and two days off in the middle of June so we could go on a family vacation after school got out. We decided to stay home (COVID and all). Jim gave back a couple of the vacation days but kept the others. He worked on the new room, and we did a couple of hikes.

Pinhead Peak is a 1.5-mile out-and-back with a typical Southern California chaparral landscape. It was fine, but we probably don't need to go back. We probably would've enjoyed it a little more on a less hot-and-sunny day.

It's horse country out there. We saw a couple of beautiful horses at the bottom of the hill, and I took the girls to try to see them. They ended up being less accessible than two others that were hanging out right by where we parked. The owner of the latter two was super nice and offered to let the girls sit on one of the horses for a picture.

The other hike we did was Tenaja Falls in Murrieta, a 1.4-mile round trip out-and-back. We were trying to keep these hikes easy and pleasant for the kids. 

There were tons of this plant at the bottom of the hill around the river:

Jim thought it was poison oak, and we tried to stay away from it. We went back and forth through that area a bunch of times looking for the trail (and, on the way back down, trying to figure out where we had crossed the river), so I was sure we were all going to get it bad.

The end of the hike is a little waterfall with a freezing little pool. One lady waded in before we did. Other than that, no one else got in while we were there. Wusses.

We didn't have swimsuits, so the littles made Jim take them in nudie-style.

Ever wanted me to go in with her. She took her off shirt; I went fully clothed.

Goosey even went all the way under with me.

The girls have learned our motto: Swim in every body of water.

After our dip, we hung out on the rocks, dried in the sun, and snacked. We enjoyed this tiny, camouflaged frog. 

We went along the side of the cliff a little bit to get a peek of the river as it continued down the hill. Then we hiked out. Ever's and my wet clothes kept us nice and cool. The girls and I got a couple-minute head start on Jim, and he never caught us. Tiny ran the entire way down. We couldn't keep up. At the top, I let a group of three young women go by (probably college-age) thinking they'd be faster than we were, but Tiny kept running and catching up to them, nipping at their heels. We had to pass them, and then we stayed ahead the whole way. I tasked Ever with keeping Tiny in view. I told her to yell at Tiny and make her stop and wait if she got far enough ahead that Ever was going to lose sight of her. Sometimes they stopped in the shade until we approached, but then they took off again. Tiny fell once or twice, but she just kept going. Ever said Tiny told her, "I used to be so slow, but when I run, I get energy, and I go faster." We were wandering around by the river at the bottom of the hill trying to figure out where to cross when Jim finally joined us. He said he was worried when he never saw us; he kept thinking I had somehow taken a wrong turn. 

A couple of us got teeny rashes after that, but they weren't bad or very itchy. Mine was just a little patch above my wrist. I can't imagine it was from the poison oak (and I actually still have it a month and a half later, so that's weird), but in any case, we lucked out. It was a nice little jaunt.

June 2020 Backpacking Trip to Weaver Lake

 In June 2020, we backpacked into Weaver Lake in the Jennie Lakes Wilderness by Sequoia/King's Canyon. It's a 6.5 mile out-and-back trail. Somehow I don't have any pictures of this trip, so I missed it while blogging. I have a vague memory of relying on Jim for pictures that weekend; not sure why. Anyway, he found these on his phone, so I'm blogging it out of order. 

To the best of Jim's recollection, we drove up and camped Wednesday night, June 17, 2020, at a campground just off the road. Thursday morning we packed up, drove to the trailhead parking lot, and hiked in to the lake. Once we reached the lake, it wasn't clear where to go. We walked around and found a place to pitch our tents, but there was nowhere good to stash our food and smelly items so they'd be safe from bears. We climbed over a log near our tents (pictured below) and down a rocky area. We had a bag (or two?) of stuff that wouldn't fit in our bear canisters, so one of the littles climbed down and shoved it down among the rocks under a giant boulder. We hoped the bears wouldn't be able to reach it there, and indeed, all our stuff was untouched by wildlife for the duration.  

Friday, June 19, we explored. We scrambled around the rocks down by where our bear canisters and smelly stuff were (down the hill from this log). 

In the afternoon we went exploring around the lake, stopping to read from These Happy Golden Years (the eighth book in the Little House on the Prairie series). I recall a fight about this. Some little people didn't want to read (or wanted to read a different book, maybe). But the picture makes it seem nice.

We found a spot out on a little peninsula from which we wanted to jump in. We all got into our swimsuits. I think Jim got in and out quickly. I stood on a rock by the water for a long time trying to muster the courage, as I knew it was freezing. Tiny, who was a few weeks out from her fourth birthday at the time, stood next to me. Suddenly, without any warning, she leaped in. She was shocked by the cold and very unhappy, and she swam as quickly as she could to the side. We were so proud of her for jumping in like that, all by herself. Our adventurous, brave little Tiny.

Next was my turn. 

Ever wanted me to stay in until she got in. She seriously lagged, however, and it was so cold. She finally tried to wade in, and right after this video, she hit her toe on a rock and got hurt and gave up trying to swim.

After that adventure, I really wanted to climb up the other side of the lake. Ever was adamantly opposed and wanted to go back to the campsite. She finally agreed, and we started scrambling over the rocks on the far side. I called out something like, "Goosey, you're making my dreams come true!" as we raced over the rocks. I was so happy. Ever was ahead of me; Jim was bringing up the rear. It was all grand until Ever yelled that she was stuck. She had reached a steep section and couldn't go up or down. She sounded desperate. Jim hurried to help her. We realized then that we were in a predicament. Going down or sideways didn't look possible. The cliff above us looked really sketchy, but it was the only option.  Jim was really upset with me for running up ahead and putting us in this position. I just didn't know it wasn't safe until it wasn't. It's always easy to go up until you can't, at which point you realize you can't go down either. And Ever was ahead of me, so I didn't know what we were getting into. Anyway, we decided that Jim would take the girls up one at a time. I hung out on a ledge with the littles and tried to act as if everything were all right while Jim climbed with Ever. Secretly I prayed over and over that we would somehow be able to do this safely. The top section was completely out of view, so I didn't have any idea where they were or what was going on. Jim  returned for Wren and said he'd left Ever sitting on a rock at the top. One by one, he shuttled the girls up while I sat in terror and prayed. I was so scared that someone was going to fall and die; we had done this stupid thing, and now a tragic accident was going to occur. It felt like an eternity each time Jim was gone. I worried at least as much about his coming down each time as I did about his trip up with a kid. Eventually we all made it to the top, and I was so relieved I started crying.   

All these pictures were taken before the super hairy part where the shuttling began. Even some of this looks  dumb. 

In the picture below, Ever is on the big rock above me, and Wren is on my left. 

Again, Ever is way up at the top (probably around where she got stuck):

Never was there a happier sight than these three little people waiting safely at the top:

After we all reached the top, we made our way to the left and down, finally reaching the lake and going back around it the way we had started out. We passed a couple there who congratulated us on our achievement. They had watched our entire ascent with fascination, trying to figure out our plan and who was climbing when. They took a bunch of pictures of us and said they would e-mail them to us but never did. I really would have liked to see what we looked like up there. 

Saturday morning, the girls climbed boulders while Jim and I packed up.

I recall that the beginning of the hike out was a total nightmare. Tiny was a disaster and refused to cooperate. I think she got wet and had clothing issues, and it took us about an hour to round the lake and really start hiking. I also remember that with all three girls and their small bladders and active bowels, somebody had to go to the bathroom about every hour during this trip. It's not easy. 

Tiny was in her element in the dirt.  

Dirty and tired, but we made it.

Tiny talked about Weaver Lake for a long time afterward. She said she wanted to go back for her birthday. 

On the drive home, Google lady tried to take us on a dirt road that couldn't possibly have been the right way. Jim looked at the map and tried to figure out where to go, and then he drove for an hour in the wrong direction. There were no signs, and his Google map wouldn't update for lack of service. He was incredibly angry about the two-hour detour; it's very important to him that we return from trips early enough to have a leisurely evening. Better luck next time.