Hoh Nat'l Forest, WA

Opening a book of fairy tales, reading over those mystical words, your mind begins to paint pictures with shockingly vibrant colors, and dark charcoaled shadows. 

Seeing the Hoh Forest in person, literature-like scenes where dwarves, giant spiders, unicorns or even terrifying werewolves would be common place began to materialize before my eyes. (are you thinking of the same books as I am?)

Just as I began thinking that I could almost lay down and fall asleep on the blanket of soft moss, my eye would catch a slimy trail from a giant banana slug, and that thought didn't seem so appealing any longer. 

We even were able to see some elk in this cove of trees. Mark took a better picture than this on his panoramic film camera, but this blog may never see that one, unfortunately. 

Just trust these photos when I say it was beautiful.

ps - this forest is a mere 10 miles from Forks, WA (I was so excited)

the pest

Anyone ever read the Beverly Cleary books about Romana the Pest? My little sister read it, and I think this was her edition. I even remember she loved the story... perhaps she even tried one or two of Ramona's pesky tricks on me, I'll never know:

When my mom was visiting, I ordered the movie Ramona and Beezus from Netflix, and for the record, I am giving it a rave review. Just thinking of it makes me want to watch it again. I laughed, I cried, I swooned, I adored...  truly, I did it all. Sorry mom, you were right next to me while I was on the roller coaster.

There's a lot of love,

a lot of funny, (I almost lost it when I saw this part... even looking at the picture has me rolling again)

and a lot of just plain old family fun:

I think I'm going to add this to my movie collection, I liked it that much. So, even if you have boys, even if you've never heard of these books, even if you don't like happy things, go watch this movie. You have my 5 star recommendation. "It's picture-perfect, right?" Right.

dandy lion hunter

We're here in California! It's hot! It's full of bugs! It's dry! It's sunny! While I miss Alaska terribly, I'm also having terrible amounts of fun with my little lion hunter.

There are so many new things here to show him. For instance, yesterday we watched a spider catch a fly.. seriously, we were both enthralled.

He has learned that he is brave enough to go down big spirally slides all alone, and he tries so hard to make his sister laugh in the car that he ends up cracking himself up instead. It really makes Mark and I laugh!

Today at the library, after I bored him with my book-search, he found some majorly fun toys. When I pried him off it, I had to stop his screeching with hilarious attempts at getting a drink from a drinking fountain. He's always played more than drink, but it at least stopped his terrible-2-screeches. Stinker.

We have found a killer mall (even has my favorite furniture store), killer strawberry shakes, and killer bugs - one of which was left smashed on my wall by the previous live-ins - yes! It's a good thing California has beaches and movie stars! Oh, and I do love this tan I've already traded my whiteness in for. It was a good trade, I tell ya.

I have lots more I could tell this blog, but it's a wee bit late, and I'm a wee bit tired. I'm off to carry my wee-est little one upstairs in her basket.

a Washingtonian day in the life of Mont

as seen through my iphone:

wake up:

 do his chores (ha):

 eat his chocolate cake for breakfast:

take care of his little sister:

 walk to the park:

 run to the slide:

ask, "what's thaaat?!" about 5,000 times:

 meet the local deer, scares them away, learns a new word:

does some yard work (another ha):

 takes a bath, learns how to maneuver a boat through whale-infested waters:

gets rosy cheeks, then goes to bed:

by sea

After the kids and I made it to Washington with my folks', a week later Mark hopped aboard the sea vessel called "The Columbia" and headed for the Americas (at least... the lower 48, but just go with it). 

Here are my favorites of his photos:

 (I love fog!)

life's like a bowl fulla cherries

Painted for my mother, 

acrylic on canvas, 5" x 7" 

cutest little cyclops

For those facebookers out there, you have probably already seen this.. and for emailers and instagramers, same thing.

But this if for the blog-onlyers.

just peachy

For Mark's parents who are big fans of Brigham City's Peach Days.
Acrylic on canvas, 8" x 8"

batdog

Have you ever seen Homeward Bound, where Chase (the goofy dog voiced by Michael J. Fox) is head out the window with ears straight out to the wind? He shouts "Batdog!"? Well every time my sister and I saw that as littles, we would laugh and laugh, and ever since, I still remember that a dog with its head out the window is lovingly referred to a "batdog." Longest sentence ever, right there. Did you go back to read it? I bet you did. ha!

Well... here's Batdog-Buckwheat. My pooch. Because California is a land of warm weather and insects, we thought it best if Buckwheat stayed in Alaska just for the time we are in Temporary Living Facilities in CA. TLFs are already pretty bad... but add in a pooch and you've got bugs (ticks and fleas find him rather handsome) and added dirt. Thinking of that and a new baby....

We rented him a family. A sweet, rambunctious, perfectly adorable family to keep him loved and entertained for the 6 - 7 months we're in transition. It'll be my HUGE birthday present when Mark flies back to get him. I love that man of mine! I do miss my fuzzy shadow quite a bit already, though. Happy bat-days, Buckwheat.  (Picture is on the way to Nicole's for the big drop, I even rolled down his window)

so blessed

Emmy's blessing happened on May 15th, with both sets of parents and even an Aunt. Even some good friends we know from Texas, the Rays, came to the church for it.

My mother brought up the same dress that all of us girls wore, including herself! It's a handmade dress bought by my Grandmother Barrett in New York way back when. It was a little big for little Emmy, but still perfectly darling. I loved seeing her in it.. 

Mark had also been asked to give a talk, addressing his Young Men, which was perfect because he was able to say his thank yous and good byes on behalf of our little family in addition to all the spiritually-juicy stuff. Boy, did I cry a lot that day! Sarah! You did me in at the end.

Here is the crew; it was so nice to have our parents with us! It was a full house and loads of fun - I am so lucky to have in-laws and parents that get along so well. It was a blast. Lots of laughing!