Why Did it Have to be Snakes?! or One Tiny Incident in an Otherwise Beautiful Day

Earlier this month we took the kids on a hike at Liberty Lake. The road was closed, so we had to walk in to the trail head, making it a longer hike than we anticipated. By the time we were done, it was a 4.3 miles round trip. Impressively, our kids did the entire loop with hardly a complaint or an 'Are we there yet?'.

At the base of the mountains lies a protected marshland, which can be best viewed from an observation deck. This deck is accessed by a long boardwalk that crosses the marsh. As we made our way along the boardwalk, we were surrounded by the sound of rustling dry grass.

It was a beautiful view with lots of birdwatching. I stayed on the observation deck and took a few pictures of Brett and the kids while they made their way back to the trail.


As I was about to step off the deck, I caught a peek at this little fellow. Notice the perfect camouflage for the marshy grasses.


It wasn't until a bunch of his little friends and relatives joined him, that it suddenly occurred to me that all that rustling wasn't caused by breezes blowing through the grass, but by SNAKES slithering in it!

(Silent scream!)

I quickly retreated in a speedy, if undignified, manner. (Yep. I ran away, squealing the whole time.) It was extremely creepy running all alone down that long boardwalk, surrounded by rustling snakes in the grass.

I'm SO with Indiana Jones. He would have squealed, too, if he'd been on that durned boardwalk.

I was just glad that my family hadn't seen my cowardly performance or I'd still be hearing about it.

Fortunately, the rest of the hike was lovely and mostly reptile-less. Brett and the kids did some geocaching along the way, while I took pictures of the fun.

Freeloader here doesn't mind hiking a bit!

Boys, rocks, water and dirt.

My kids love this Scooby-Doo movie where two of the main elements are a Green Dragon and The Sword of Doom. Every sword at our house (and there are A LOT of them) has been rechristened 'The Sword of Doom" by Cameron. On this hike, Natalie hit the Scooby-Doo jackpot. She found a downed tree covered in patches of green moss.

Thrilled, with imagination racing, she climbed onto the log. In reality she may have been sitting on a tree, but in her imagination, she was flying on the green dragon.

At one point, she even leaned over to give the 'dragon' a kiss.

By the way, I love these shoes she's wearing. They are old red and black Chucky T's that all three of my girls have worn. Some things are just classics and will always be cool.

Catching a ride.

Max found one last geocache as we finished our hike and headed to the lake. It is in the stump of a sawed off limb of this giant willow tree. Can you see Max? I was glad he volunteered to go get it.

What better way to end the day than to spend some time playing on the beach. Cameron and Natalie, of course, love the sand and water.

Natalie may just love it a little TOO much.


The big kids spent most of their time building sand castles . . .


and wishing Mom would put away the camera already.


Thankfully, at least one of my kids will still look at me and smile when I want to take their picture. Thank you, my beautiful, cooperative middle child.

Of Toddlers and Trampolines

A week or so ago we surprised the kids with a trampoline. We hadn't considered one before because Grandma Clark has one. We try hard not to duplicate the amusements at her house so they stay extra special. But we reversed that position on the trampoline because of its use as a therapy tool for Cameron.

They loved the surprise and jumped and jumped until the sun went down. Then, after the sun came up the next day, this is what I saw out my bedroom window.


He couldn't wait. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get him off when his bus came!

It didn't take long for Natalie to wander out in her pajamas to join him.


As always, any new situation in a family requires a few new rules. When she first came outside, Natalie was still holding her toast in her hand. So, I had to tell her to give me the toast before she started jumping.


She didn't take it well.

"Really, Mom? That's so mean! I can't believe you took my toast away!"

"Well, okay." (resignedly)

I guess she got over the Temporary Toddler Toast Tradgedy.

The Upside of Child Labor

"Successful marriages and families are established
and maintained on principles of faith, prayer,
repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion,
work, and wholesome recreational activities."

Our family has had some recent experiences that have reminded me just how true this statement from the Proclamation to the World is. Our recent trip to Seattle was one example. Last Saturday was another.

You know its going to be a great day when you wake up to find a squirrel doing acrobatics on your swingset.


It was a glorious spring day. Grey winter skies had given way to the soft blue of springtime, urging us to be outside and soak in the sun. It was also the kind of day you dream about during General Conference--your whole family working industriously and happily together. No fighting. No bad attitudes. No slacking.

And it wasn't just a dream . . . it was actually real.

The Project:

We were replacing our old raised garden beds with three new ones. Brett already had the new beds built, but we needed to position and fill the new ones.


Cameron, Max and Camille focused their energies on filling the wheelbarrow with the new garden soil.


Even though his shovel was small, Cam made up for it with lots of enthusiasm for the job.


He was a very happy kid.


Camille is getting old enough to be a real help. She dug in (pun intended) and worked happily and hard.


Max was also a trooper and moved a lot of dirt. After all, dirt is his natural element.


All that hard work can really take it out of a guy.


And then there's Elise. She claimed the job of leveling the soil in the beds when Brett had dumped a wheelbarrow load into them. She stayed there and worked and worked until the job was done.


Except when she was rescuing earthworms. There's another one!


But if anyone in the family was enjoying themselves it was Natalie. She was the Belle of the Dirt Ball.


To grownups, this may look like a wheelbarrow ramp, but kids know what its real function is.


As much fun as the slide was, she wasn't going to be outdone by her siblings.

She was going to move dirt, too, even if she had to do it with her bare hands.

Who am I kidding?! As far as she's concerned, bare hands are the best way to move dirt!

At least she cleans up after herself.

Sometimes.

Rarely.

Only for this picture.

And then comes the best part of the whole day . . . .


Doesn't it just make you want to be a kid again? (Brett refused to give me a wheelbarrow ride.)

Clark Family Thesis "What I did for Spring Break"

We never know what to do for Spring Break since Brett usually doesn't have any time off. This year he had vacation on Monday, so we decided to take the kids to the 'West Side' (for you non-Washingtonians, this means the Seattle area) so we could go visit our tax dollars in King County.

Actually, we were there visiting my sister Gayla and her family in Snohomish, but we thought we'd take the kids to see a few places they've never been before.

First stop: the Pacific Science Center.

Beats the heck out of a Tonka in the sandbox!

Tic-Tac-Toe against a robotic arm

A Tide Pool Petting Zoo

The Bug and Butterfly House exhibits were a hit with the kids.


We even got to take a couple of exotic species home with us:


And look who we ran into: Governor Christine Gregoire!

They say she's nicer in person.

So many things to see and do there. It is an amazingly fun and diverse place, as you can see. They really have something for everyone there.

They even have Naked Mole Rats!

(I would have posted a picture, but this is a family blog!)

And who can resist cool water toys? Not us, apparently.


Or how about a trip to Mars! Max got to ride in a command chair and experience centrifugal force (Or centripetal force. I never remember which is which.)


Camille got to experience what it would be like to walk in the reduced gravity on Mars.

It was harder than it looked.

We looked at the Space Needle, but going to the top was an easy pass for Brett and I. We don't like heights. Not everyone in the family felt the same way.

Max: "Pleeaase! Can I go up? I can even take the stairs!"

Natalie was just happy playing with Cam's hat.

**See the aforementioned tax dollars at work.

Guess we might as well get some use out of them!

Next stop: Pike Place Market. This is a giant complex of in-building shops and open air market stalls. Restaurants, hippie shops, bakeries, street performers, crazy people, you name it--its there.

I LOVE Pike Place Market. The kids got to see the famous flying fish as the fish mongers toss the catch of the day to each other to wrap for customers. The crab were the size of dinner plates! Usually, I can't decide what part of the market I love the most. Generally, it is a toss up between . . . .

the beautiful produce, and . . .

the gorgeous flowers.

But this trip, the hands down favorite was a street performer and his trained parrot.

This parrot did the best tricks: flipped around the owners finger, rolled over to fake punches, barked like a dog, fell over when his owner 'shot' him with a finger gun, turned somersaults and lots more. Everyone in the crowd was delighted, but Cameron was beyond himself. I have never seen him more excited about anything in his life.

Look at that face.

I would walk to China to see delight and joy like that again.

Saturday was another unusually beautiful Seattle day. Brett went for a run. The kids played outside and didn't manage to let the chickens out this time. As a result, Brett didn't have to once again measure the air speed velocity of a hostile rooster.

We went for a walk at a local park to enjoy the weather.

Initially, Natalie had some trouble with the walking stick thing. She'd grab the stick in the middle and then had to crouch down to be able to get it's end to touch the ground as she walked. Eventually, though, she got the hang of it.


Later that afternoon, when Brett and I got home from window shopping the cute historic area of Snohomish, we got to see a neighbor's calf that had been born maybe fifteen or twenty minutes before. Max just missed seeing it born!

But, all good things must come to an end, so we started to slowly make our way home on Monday. The good weather was definitely over. Instead of going through Stevens Pass, we went through Snoqualmie Pass (which was not nice) and then up through Blewitt Pass to get to Leavenworth.

It is almost April, people! Seriously!

Leavenworth is a scenic little Faux-Bavarian village on the east slopes of the Cascades. A little kitschy in spots, but lots of fun.

Enlarge the picture and take a look at Elise.

'Yeah for Aunt Gayla, who made Mom
take us to the Fudge Hut!'

(I was just glad she didn't make us take the evil rooster home. My kids nicknamed it Darth Vader II. Only my family will understand that one. Brett did offer to get a metal bucket and a stick to adjust its bad attitude.)

Of course, no trip to Leavenworth would be complete without a visit to the Hat Shoppe.

Max living out his Centurion dream.

While Max gets an honorable mention for his goofy expression in this photo and Camille looks quite regal, Elise wins the grand prize for the cutest little Viking girl in history.

A brief stop at the Applets and Cotlets factory to satisfy my children's Narnia-induced curiosity about Turkish Delight was followed by lunch at a great retro diner in Wenatchee.

Natalie says 'Whee!'

And when it was all over and we were done with all the fun . . .

our kids weren't just tired . . .

They were EXHAUSTED!