Dwayne and I always enjoy CDA, but this is the first time we’ve taken the kids.  Since we arrived late Sunday, we decided to stay a second night so that we could spend time in one of our favorite towns.

First, we found RV parking near a great park, and we explored ourselves right onto a very popular trail. 

Once we found an alcove for the kids to roll up their pants (after they fell in the water, of course, because that is Our Way) and play, Dwayne and I had nothing to do put find a sunny rock and play lizard.  Well, literate lizards, as I had a Mother Jones and he had a Father Phone.

 

Mudgey the Moose and Millie the Mouse were new to Cd’A since we visited, and they staked out good spots all over town.

Piper’s face speaks volumes about her relationship to sharing and siblings.

Besides the galleries and excellent restaurants (we recommend Seasons and The Cedars Floating Restaurant), I really enjoyed the public art.  Best dandelion fluff ever.

We didn’t get much time there, but we liked the RV park at Blackwell Island.  Just a handful of other campers, but the youngers enjoyed skeeter catching in the little pond, and I got a little Kyla time.

Between the sun, beach time for the kids, great food, and lovely downtown, we were really glad to take extra time in this town and hope to come back!

My niece is just a few weeks from graduating and we got to pick her up in the “limo” and spend a little time over dinner with Kara.

It’s never a secret when Wesley’s had dessert….

Thanks, Kara, for carving out time for us as you finish up your last term!  Love you!

Dwayne fixed the door easily so we had enough time to explore the river.

One of Dwayne’s hidden talents is rock stacking, and I love that the kids are emulating him!

The first day is always exciting, and we didn’t take advantage by booking across the state.  We got to meet Papa Jim for brunch before traveling over to Leavenworth—a place the kids haven’t seen without snow.  We got enough sun to get halfway through a long walk before the sky poured out.  Luckily, the  Gingerbread Factory is always open when we need it!  A little shopping, a little dinner, and then a little adventure. 

The step was supposed to retract every time we closed the door; the manual said so.  The manual did NOT say what do when the step stopped retracting.  In a parking lot. At a rainy 9pm, a solid 3 hours after any useful stores closed.  Turns out you wrestle the pin out the mechanism and hold the steps in with a ratchet strap, for the rest of the trip.  So grateful I married a useful problem solver!

A few weeks ago, after brainstorming (and pricing) several other travel options, we stopped by NWAdventures in Lynnwood and rented a 32’ Class C motorhome.

Our trip in a nutshell:

• 7 nights
• 1,490 miles
• 27 hours of driving

With its own sense of humor, Easter came on April 1st this year, inciting Wesley to chant “I can’t wait for Easter Fool’s Day” in anticipation.

My own expectations coupled with my kids’ unsubtle demands left me with the following to-do list:

1) Be the Easter Bunny

2) Sprinkle in April Fool’s jokes on the children

3) Organize and host Easter dinner for 34

4) Organize an Egg Hunt for 13 children

5) Still make Easter somewhat spiritually meaningful for the family.

Easter baskets were easy—each got an appropriate knife, Wesley’s 8 year old jackknife, and the girls each got the recommended knife for their summer survival camp, as well as some books and a chocolate bunny.

Sadly, they also got the following letter when they woke up Easter morning:

Dear Children,

I have outdone myself this year. Remember in the past when you would find your baskets in less than an hour? Well, I will weep if you can find them without tears of frustration before 8:45am. You each have different colored paper bag with your name on it hidden somewhere downstairs. Truly, I had no pity when I hid these. You won’t find anything upstairs or outside. Nothing for you has been hidden in the guest room—your mom will kill you, and then me, if you try digging through the stuff she has piled in there.

In addition to your Easter bag, there are a dozen little cute eggs hidden between the playroom, bathroom, hallway and office. You should be able to find about 3 of them. I will tear my clothes and gnash my teeth if you find all twelve.

Don’t wake up your parents, especially your mom, with all the crying you will be doing when attempting to do MY egg hunt. You are doomed to failure and I shall finally reign triumphant!

Love,

The Evil Easter Bunny

At least two children cried in the hour it took them (and a few very pointed hints) to find their gifts, but they got to sit down their the breakfast of “hamburger and fries”.

And that’s pretty much the last unblurred picture I took for the day, but the to-do list got done enough, and it was an excellent day.

What is a friendship egg, you may ask? It is when a group of friends/siblings use the 6 egg dye colors to make a gestalt color to symbolize the beauty of their friendship and it turns out sludge brown, and then the oldest girls mix just a few colors to create a pretty lavender and dye the very last egg.  It still is dubbed the friendship egg, as the kids all share claim to it.

That was the newest feature of our traditional Great Egg Dye, which also included initiating two newbies to egg dying.  I need both extra time and nice weather for this event, as I’ve been Mom too long to allow this to take place inside my house. But the kids took to it right away, even figuring out the foil etching, which I thought turned out particularly well.  Here are our efforts:

The boy is charming the socks off me lately! 

His sisters have taught him to make mac-n-cheese and then recently Dwayne helped him make pancakes. Now he is fearless.

I came home today from a long day at the school and found this treat waiting for me:

Wesley had made me pancakes and set the table with all my favorite syrups, along with a fresh cup of tea.  (He knows the way to my heart is through herbal tea.) The real surprise?  He had done all the clean up, too! 

He served me on our “You Are Special” plate and made me this sign.  And then we sat down together to eat pancakes while we talked about our day. 

You are welcome, future Wesley bride! But if you don’t mind, I’d like to keep him for another decade or two.

Kyla has been on 5th grade math team during lunch this school year and the big NEMO (um, maybe National something Math Olympiad?) was finally today, 18 hours after they got home from 5th grade camp.  I’m going to give my friend, Jenny, a huge amount of credit for coaching the group for 6 months and then taking 5 4-person teams to the district event.  Kyla’s team earned a gold—everyone left with a bronze, silver, or gold medal—and I took lots of notes, as I’ll be coaching Piper’s class next year.  Go Pi!

Every 5th grader in our school district gets to go to overnight camp in the spring.  Our school shared our Wed-Fri slot with two other neighborhood schools.  Kyla’s BFF’s mom was one of the parent volunteers and someone who loves Kyla put her in the same cabin as both of them.  (That’s how I got all these pictures in real time—thanks Cris!)

Camp must be awesome—if you don’t mind the rain (and snow this year), the kids get to do amazing things: 

fire making,

archery,

and things I don’t have picture evidence of, like rock-climbing (Kyla got a gold bead for this one!), shelter-making, skits, etc.

When Kyla opened her book the first night, she found a card tucked between the pages.