Jonathan's Construction Birthday Party, August 2010

Then came Jonathan's birthday. Daddy gave him a Swiss Army knife at breakfast. Daddy also made french toast, and we put a candle in Jonathan's stack. He thought that was a gas!

We had a construction party! What a fun time! I sent out invitations that were written on paint color chips. You know, those cards in the hardware store that show paint colors? Each box had a sentence..."Jonathan is "fixin" to turn 6! Construction site: our address. Shift: 2-4pm, and the date. RSVP to site boss, Darla, and our phone. Dress for mess!" When each of the 8 kids arrived, they were given a tool belt filled with a paint stir stick, a carpenter's pencil, a tape measure/level, a foam paintbrush, and a painters disposable hat, all of which was theirs to take home. Michael had made a house out of a refrigerator box, complete with windows and a door (with a milk jug handle doorknob!) Half of the kids started painting on the house, and the other half demolished a tower of boxes using a wrecking ball. After that got old, they had a wheelbarrow race. Then the teams switched places so everyone got a chance to use their paintbrushes to paint. Thankfully, some of the moms stayed, or this mom would have been a wreck!

The cake I made was sort of the one shown in the magazine for this party. I decided to use chocolate zucchini cake instead of a pound cake. I DID go to the store hoping to find 4 mini chocolate-covered doughnuts, 4 Twix, and 2 Twinkies. Note to self: don't leave things like this until crunch time. I bought a bag of about 24 mini chocolate-covered doughnuts, a huge bag of Twix, and a box of 12 Twinkies. ugh. Had I thought a little longer, I would have gone to a convenience store, right? Right. Then I wouldn't have had to eat the rest of the doughnuts and Twinkies. Jonathan saw the picture of the cake I was going to bake and said, "That's not an excavator, it's a backhoe loader." He wanted tracks, so we rigged up some Twizzler twists around the doughnuts. The cake was a hit.

Now, if you think that I think up all these things by myself, well, you have another think coming! This came straight from a Family Fun magazine, circa April 2008. (I saw it then, was fully aware of the little boy I was raising, and thought to myself, "Self, you ought to pull this one out and keep it. You're going to want it one of these years.") I am glad I kept it. I went into our local lumber yard to see if they had free nail pouches, paint sticks, brushes, anything I could get free or cheap as I was making a dozen. I had the pages I had torn out of the magazine with me. The lady helping me saw in the list of things to pack in the tool belt "Small measuring tape, $1, Home Depot" and promptly sat to her computer and ordered me a dozen for $1 each! She did everything she could to give me discounts or freebies. We live in a cool town.

Kids' Shared Birthday Party, early August 2010

Well, because Michael and I skipped town on Annisia's birthday, she didn't get a pary with friends. So, we planned a party for both kids to share with their little friends from our fellowship meeting. Annisia got to choose the cake. She chose an ice cream cake! Yippee! No baking! It was so fun to do. I bought a gallon of fudge swirl ice cream ( I NEVER buy a gallon of ice cream, well, only at Christmas time when I get one of those collector tins from Schwan's, but usually never...), I made hot fudge sauce. I used my cheesecake pan, put an oreo crust down, covered it with ice cream, a layer of hot fudge, more ice cream. Then I put blue food coloring into whipped cream and spread it over the top. Once frozen, I pulled off the springform pan and surrounded the cake with Twix and pretzels. I got a Dora and baby twins toy for Annisia and a little Annikan from Star Wars for Jonathan, then borrowed the golf balls from a little golf set the kids had. The dolls went into gummy rings and the balls were beach balls...voila! A pool party!

I decorated a table for the party too. I got the idea from the May 2009 Parents magazine then tweaked it a little with my imagination and what I had available.  I painted a tree and hills. The tree was a big green apple tree, with bowls of green things; green pepper strips, broccoli, Granny Smith apples, green grapes and cucumbers. The tree trunk was covered with pretzels and topped with peanut butter. Beside that was a hot air balloon filled with more grapes. There was a sun...a red bowl filled with goldfish crackers inside a yellow bowl filled with tortillla chips, surrounded by rainbow fruit rollups. There were some flowers with salsa, carrots, ranch dressing, and a couple of caterpillars; snack cups filled with raisins and an animal cracker. It's a good thing mommies came. The kids could have cared less! Simply put, the cake was the cake!

Annisia's Birthday, July 2010

We gathered at Pizza Hut to celebrate Annisia's birthday. We had the buffet, then I brought out the ice cream sandwiches. We lit a candle in hers and started singing, 8 adults and Jonathan. A table of high school girls who were enjoying lunch after a tough volleyball practice joined in! What a sweet surprise and great addition to our feeble song! The middle photo here is Annisia blushing at all the attention! Makes me laugh every time I look at it...

A Trip up to Hellroaring Plateau, July 2010

The next morning, we hobbled out of bed and decided to go on a hike. Hellroaring Plateau was our destination. But first, we had to drive up a CRAZY steep, bumpy single lane road. The seven mile road took us ONE HOUR. If you met someone coming the other direction, one of you backed up until the road got wide enough for you to pass. In the pics below, it's the foremost road.

 And that's Hellroaring Plateau on the upper right.

We started hiking around. Very cool country there. We started noticing these troughs scattered around the area and figured they were dugouts for miners. We passed a mining entrance on the way up. Silver? Gold? Don't know, but these dugouts were cool.

Some were small, possibly the sleeping areas. A couple were larger, likely a cooking area and a gathering area. Here's Michael standing in the largest one.

The area was very pretty. We found pretty trails, rocks, canyons...likely named Hellroaring for the sound of the wind through the canyon.

The collage shows some of the wildflowers we enjoyed, a photo of the mine entrance, and a beautiful gorge, and me, posing...cheese!

Then we had to go back down...

Beartooth Highway Tandem Ride, July 2010

How do you follow up an 8 mile ride up the Going to the Sun Road on your honeymoon? Hiking up to Grinnell Glacier on your 1st Anniversary? Climbing the 2nd Flatiron on your 2nd Anniversary? You do a 12 mile ride up the Beartooth Highway on the tandem on your 10 year anniversary! Crazy. I know. I'm kind of nervous about the 25th one...

At the 11th hour, we were still trying to figure out what to do. Should we camp, hike, drive a long way to see friends for a few hours? What should we do? We really like Red Lodge, so we decided to do something there. I suggested we take the tandem and do a little cruising around the area. You know, find a nice road and cruise?! Right. We foisted the kiddos off on family, then headed out to Red Lodge with the tandem in the back of the truck and the camper hooked up. We found a campground Friday night, finagled our way into a spot by a creek, and relaxed. Here's a collage of our campsite...If you click on the collage it will expand into approximately a 5x7 photo. Then you can click again to further zoom...

The next morning, Michael went out to get the bike ready. He found a flat tire. We had forgotten to let out the air before the climb in altitude. oops. Then we discovered we didn't have a spare and all the tire fixing goo was really old and dried up, and now what? A woman walked by on the road of the campground. Their little doggy ran off and she was retrieving it. She asked if we were going cycling and we told her our dilemma. She said they were going to ride up the Beartooth Highway too, and she'd check with her husband to see if they had a spare spare tire. (yes, you read that right!) Soon, her husband came back with two spares and an offer to ride with us. Really nice couple...totally forgot their names. They are in the collage below...she's the one holding her bike overhead. She doesn't do well with heights, so this was a great accomplishment. He drove their rig up, rode down on his bike, then we rode up and she took the rig down. Riding up those switchbacks was enough; she didn't want to ride down them!

I really thought the ride was going to be tortuous. After all, I had spent the summer sanding and refinishing, and that's what we did every weekend too. The only time we had ridden was the Sunday previous when we coasted down into town, got an ice cream treat, then rode one mile uphill to home, a grand total of maybe five miles. Good thing I lead cycling classes at the Y. At least I have some endurance. We figure we averaged 8mph on the climb. That's good for two 40+ people on basically their first ride of the season. Here's a collage of the ride...If you click on the collage it will expand into approximately a 5x7 photo. Then you can click again to further zoom...

And now, a map of the switchbacks...

We rode to the "Vista Point" where we took the photos of us by the tandem. This was about an 8.7 mile ride from the campground area we started from. We took a break, then decided to ride further up the road. (Don't ask me why... really, don't!) So, if you look at the map above, we figure we rode off the upper right corner of the map...to a total of 12 miles.

We enjoyed a fruit leather and Clif bar, then started the descent. The tandem has a drum brake on the rear wheel and I, the stoker, run it on the captains' command. So, I set it where he told me to and we cruised. One switchback before reaching the vista point again, Michael said, "Uh oh, that doesn't look good. The front tire is starting to bulge." great. I was already freaking about the next 9 miles downhill. (Trust me, I'd rather ride uphill.) We rode into the parking lot of the Vista Point, I hopped off and went over to one of the two trucks parked there. We knew at that point there would be no more riding. Just as I started talking to the woman in the truck, explaining our predicament, telling her our tire was bulging, Ka-POW! It blew! Sounded like a gunshot. She was the support truck for a motorcycle group...eek! Anyways, she brought us down to the campground where our truck was. That may have been scarier than riding down on the bike...she was a little crazy. Some pics of the tire follow...

So, all is well that ends well. We didn't crash. We didn't die. And we are getting a new front tire this year. And we'll carry extra tubes. And we'll make sure we don't do such a strenuous ride again on a 10 year old tire. I promise.

The house before and after refinishing, summer 2010

I took on the job of sanding and refinishing the house this summer. Michael got some quotes on labor, then we decided to pretend to pay me and I got to work. ;-) Here are a few pics of the wear and tear the poor house was experiencing. What with hefty north winds, driving rain and snow, the north side of the house was really hurting. Mind you, this part of the house hadn't been touched in 6 years. oops!

North side of the garage

Check out that Northwest corner...totally grayed from a combination of hot west sun and the sprinkler hitting it.

South side of Great room...

Looking up at weathering...

Right side of pic is where we stack firewood, so it's dinged up. Left side of pic begins the addition which was refinished last year.

South side dining..

South side garage 1/2 sanded (above) and fully sanded (below)

South side Great room sanded and starting to recoat with Sashco Transformation

One day, I posted on Facebook,  "Off to climb the big ladder, and it's not the corporate one!" HaHa!
Michael finished most of the really high stuff after I told him one day, "You know, I was up on the extension ladder today, and the thought flitted through my head; 'what if I fell?'" I was home alone with the kids, up on a 20ft ladder on a wooden deck. If I fell, would Jonathan know how to phone for help? I promptly climbed down, called him to me, showed him where my phone was and taught him how to unlock the keys and call Daddy or 911. And every time the rest of the summer, if I HAD to get on the extension ladder, I made sure the kids knew and were out by me.

Sanded wall, beginning to lay stain. Doesn't it look good?!

Refinished Great room wall

Looking northwest at the corner between the Dining and Great rooms. The Great room has it's new coat and the Dining room is about to get it's!

Later in the summer with the Library alcove and Sunroom sporting a new coat of finish.

East end of the garage, partly sanded

This is Darla with her handy dandy new prosthesis! A Random Orbital Sander. Check out the link...mine even came with a carrying case! Sweet! My ROS and I became good friends...

And this is how Darla looked a good portion of the summer...sawdust all over the face, in the hair, up the nose, covering the clothes...yup! Even when the kids wanted to take a bike ride down to the stop sign and back, Mommy just dusted off the worst of it, saddled up and we rode. A FaceBook post said this, "Cucumber green tea facial, brown sugar scrub, hot oil hair treatment...what do you REALLY have over 5 hours of sawdust blasting? Methinks not much...;-)"

 

July 2010...

Since I spent the summer sanding and refinishing the house, I didn't get a whole lot of photos taken because we didn't do a whole lot of things. Pics of the house coming soon...

Until then, enjoy these.

Daddy bought the kids new swings. Annisia caught a ride to the swing set on one...

Then Daddy installed them. Now we have two toddler swings to get rid of...

Aunty Leilani came for a visit. Don't you think for a minute I didn't put her to work. No siree! She put on a pair of jeans, a t-shirt she didn't mind getting stain on, and worked alongside me. That's what you do when workers come to visit...you put them to work! Then she got a Shel Silverstein book at the library and read some of the poems to the kids.

One day, Annisia's eye puffed up. We think it was a bug bite. Poor thing. Makes me sick to my stomach to look at it...

Here are a few videos of the kids through the summer and into the fall/winter.

1. Annisia dancing with Uncle Mike at Brady's wedding, 
2. Annisia dressed herself one day...flowery skirt and shirt, polka dot hat, big yellow sunglasses, black patent leather shoes, and a feathery phone. Quite the stylin' princess...so I had to interview her,
3. Jonathan setting up his work site, wanting me to play with him. The kids took advantage of every possible moment they could get with me, as I was usually up on a ladder sanding or painting. Poor kids,
4. I am going to post Jonathan's tall tale below,
5. And, last, but not least, Jonathan actually SANG at his Christmas program. Until now, he has only stood up there and looked around despite knowing all the songs, singing them the week before the program, singing them on the way to the program, the next week after the program...

Jonathan's tall tale, November 17, 2010

"Once upon a time, I was on the biggest hill of Gramma and Papa's ranch, and I hopped on a horned toad, and it started hopping down the hill, and I lassoed a jackalope, threw it in the backpack and kept on going. And then I saw that it was going to hop on Gramma's head and then hop her down and pounce on her. And, so when it was close enough, I hopped off it, pig-tied it…actually, four-leg tied it, and then I took the jackalope out of my backpack and back short-leg tied it. Done! The end."