My journal:  August 4, 2000
Kayak Trip – British Columbia, Canada.

[Things you should know:  Lacey is my sister, and Ed is my uncle, and Shane is a friend]…

Last night we camped up the road from the Chilliwack (river in BC that tried to eat me alive). We found a nice little spot up on a ledge in a clear cut just past mile marker 96. We had a great view from up there, but the campsite itself was a mess. There’s a reason it quickly became known as “Camp Serote“. We got there near dark, and were totally worn out from the days river run. We chatted a bit, then decided to head off to bed.  Lacey and Shane set up camp on the ground, I took the back of the truck, while Ed crawled off to bed in his tent.

As we were drifting off to sleep we started hearing strange noises. It was like a flying frog/bear/bird thing. It was really creepy, and kinda freaked us out because we could NOT tell what it was. We figured it was some strange bird swooping around and went to sleep.

Awhile later Lacey woke up to the sound of rocks rolling down the mountain behind us. She freaked. She litterally jumped out of her sleeping bag, directly on top of Shane. She was screaming. Hysterically. (more…)

I had good intentions to do a blog post this week. But my parents are in town. And since this is a once-a-year occasion I’ve gotten sidetracked with the following… (more…)

The other day I attended a clinic at REI called “Basic Bike Maintenance for Women”. Did I learn about bike maintenance? Yes. Is that the point of this post? No.

To be honest, if something ever malfunctioned on my bike (tire, chain or otherwise) out on the trail, and Joe wasn’t with me, I’m not sure what I would do. Hike up a hill until I got cell service and call Joe? Look up tutorials on YouTube with my phone? Laugh my head off with my girlfriends while we fumbled our way through an hour long flat tire change? Judging by the amount of time it took us to figure out one of those fancy tire inflators the other day, I’d place my bets on the latter. I knew I needed to brush up on my maintenance skills.

So when five minutes into the workshop a woman raised her hand and said “So… how do you shift into a harder gear?”, I’m ashamed to say my initial thought hovered somewhere between annoyance and impatience. Had I stumbled into the How-to-Ride-Your-Bike workshop? Of course the instructor graciously took her question and walked her though the whole process, and while I grumbled to myself about this distraction, I noticed that several women in the room had the same question.

And suddenly I felt like a complete fool.  And a hypocrit. (more…)

mo•ment
noun /ˈmōmənt/

An exact point in time.
An appropriate time for doing something, an opportunity.
A particular stage in something’s development or in a course of events.

I finally got to see Lake Tahoe yesterday on pretty much the coolest play date ever. With only a 1:2.5 child to parent ratio the day really could have gone either way; but we ended up having a blast. In fact the two youngest even took naps in the beach tent! I have a feeling Tahoe will be seeing a lot of us this summer. Although next time we’ll have to bring the crawdad catcher Joe and Ari have been working on, and some paddle boards…

In the course of the past week my kids have also enjoyed two other water play dates. One at a swimming pool, the other at a water park. While fun in their own right, at both of those places my kids lasted about an hour or two. They lasted all day at Tahoe. There’s something about the presence of sand, and the absence of cement (and crazy kids everywhere) that puts us all at ease. Anyone else noticed that?

We took a trip to the Redwoods over Memorial Day. It was beautiful, not as crowded and rainy as I thought it would be, but a little on the cold and windy side. Still, a wonderful trip with my sister and her family. Ari and his cousin had a blast! As I was previewing photos from the trip there were two that made me laugh out loud, so I had to share.

#1 My first thought when I saw this photo was “wow, what a great shot!” Then I looked closer. Can you tell what’s wrong here? (FYI, click on the photo, it should get bigger).

I know! I had no idea they were playing with lighters until I saw this photo! It’s a good thing they don’t know how to use them for anything other than swords. Learn from my mistake on this one…

(more…)

Last week was my Birthday.

When I turned 30 I started the tradition of spending my birthday camped in a really cool spot. Just about every year we HAPPEN to choose a location within a 100 mile radius of where my best pal Olivia is doing field work. This years destination was the southern portion of Death Valley. The plan was to camp, hike, hang out, cook my birthday cake in a dutch oven, share the recipe with you… It was going to be great.

Then it got cold. And windy. And my kids got sick.

We did make it to Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge to check out the pupfish. We thought that maybe we could find a pocket of calm somewhere around there. Nope. After returning to the van in 60mph winds and with dirt in our eyeballs putting up a tent was deemed impossible. Could we sleep an extra adult in the van? No.

Doesn’t this look like great camping weather? Even K-So (our dog) is squinting!Note: The following galleries are full of cell phone pictures. Pretty sure I jinxed the trip by leaving my camera home. Thankfully I discovered Instagram, the coolest photo app ever.

We ended up in a hotel in Pahrump Nevada. I know. I know! At 33 years old am I finally growing soft? (more…)

I was crabby yesterday. It’s already been a loooooong week. It was obvious I needed a break (which for me entails doing something physically exhausting). I always feel guilty taking ‘time off,’  so when Joe suggested I take a ride I gave him a laundry list of things I had to do.  Joe saw through the excuses; he did what he had to do. He loaded my bike into the van and kicked me out of the house.

I felt better the instant I looked in the rearview mirror and saw a bike, a dog and 2 (almost) empty car seats. I biked until the sun went down. Came back sweaty and tired, with scraped legs and a sunnier disposition. It reminded me that I need outdoor play time too.

I’m curious. If you were kicked out of your house for an hour or two, what would you do?

P.S. Grocery shopping doesn’t count.

I’ve been taking a spring break for as long as I can remember, it’s something I’m pretty sure I’ll never give up. March is always the most stir crazy moth for us; it’s when it SHOULD be warm but it isn’t. Skipping spring break just isn’t an option.  Some of our favorite places to camp with our kids in March are: Anza-Borrego, Mojave National Preserve, Superstition Mountains and Parashant National Monument. This year, because it was 1/2 way between me and my sister (and her husband and two boys) we settled on another long time favorite, the Death Valley area. We didn’t have much of a plan beyond meeting up in the Alabama Hills (west of Lone Pine, CA), we just too things day by day.

Here’s the visual description of our trip.

And the physical description.

Day 1: Spend all day packing. Drive from Reno, NV to Lone Pine, CA at night while the kids are asleep (a good call in every respect aside from the fact that we drove past Mono Lake in the dark, so I’ve still never seen it). Listen to the audio version of Animal Farm. Find our campground/meeting spot. Sleep in the van. (more…)

We were out for a sled hike the other day, Isaac was being crabby and didn’t want to be in the sled, so I decided I would let Ari sled down a hill on his own. I mean he is 4, it really was time he learned to manage his own sled?

First of all, you must understand that we were coming down a trail above a popular sledding spot, on a Holiday, which also happened to be a bluebird day. The hills near the parking lot at this place were PACKED with people.

So here come Ari and I down the trail and as we get closer to the hub of sledders I notice Ari getting more speed than I had anticipated, then I looked ahead and noticed him passing a pack of hoodlums and heading in the direction of a large bush on the edge of a creek instead of the trail. I sprang into action. I ran as fast as I could after the sled and when I saw that I wasn’t going to make it I jumped as far as I could, threw my hands out in the air and landed sprawled out just in back of Ari, my fingers gripping the edge of the sled. Ari stopped about an inch from getting a face full of shrubbery. The hoodlums cheered! They waved their discount store brand snowboards and cigarets in the air, shouted curse words and clapped. It was a beautiful moment.