Idaho: Gem of a State, part deux

Sorry to backtrack, but here was the view from our bed in the tent, at Lake Owyhee:

Oops, it's upside down. Please turn your head. (yes, that is my foot).

And here's a series I call "Love at the Lake: Selfies for 2"

1: Wallowa Lake

2: Lake Owyhee (same hats, different day--story of our lives)

OK, back to my post on Idaho. Famous for its potatoes, so we had to get some. Went to the farmers' market just down the road from our hotel. Got some potatoes, still have not eaten them. See future post for a report on how legit they are. As for Boise's Anaheim peppers, we know they are legit. This guy knows what's up:

Last dinner in Boise was at Bar Gernika, a Basque place with killer lamb grinders. I got mine spicy, Sarah played it safe. So delicious. Plus the Basque Block where the restaurant is has a lot of history, including a recreation of the tree graffiti the lonely Basque shepherds scratched into the bark:

We walked back to the hotel in time to catch the end of the Boise St. football game on TV. Glad we weren't still out and about when they fumbled the game away. Not that Boise strikes me as a rioting town, but you can never be too safe.

Saturday we hit the road and passed this sign, which says "Emmett Next Right," in case you don't have your glasses on. They even spelled it right. Later, when I showed him, his eyes lit up. Big smile.

We drove to Sun Valley to meet up with Larry and Linda and the boys. As we arrived, the Welcome Wagon came out:

(Your speakers are fine. It's just that I rolled up the window.)

We have enjoyed seeing Sun Valley live up to its name. Lots of walks, biking, some tennis (STILL got it!), football catch, and swimming at the awesome YMCA pool. The slide goes so fast and has like 3 wicked turns in a row. We had a blast.

But it's not all fun and games, there's also "school." But wait, why not encourage learning and fun at the same time? We had packed Story Cubes, but didn't get them out until yesterday. With a little prompting, here is what the boys did:

It's fun to see them combining their talents on a project. This year will make me a better teacher, if I pay attention to what works. If not, then it's gonna be Ken Burns all day every day! :)

So, today we roll out of town. The plan was to head north to Stanley, then Salmon. From there to Montana. But then, this forecast for Stanley:

NO THANKS.

So we are turning south, chasing the sun. Skipping Craters of the Moon (gotta save SOMEthing for later in life, right?) and heading to see our friends Chuck and Jen in Logan, Utah. After my (and the boys') first visit to Idaho, we all make our Utah debut. Feel free to add Utah-related advice in the comments below! 

PS Breaking news from Shanghai: Luke and Alyson had a baby! Welcome Pearl Abbey Macbride! You are in good hands, except for the whole Blue Jays thing.  

The Maiden Voyage

Hi all...after being critical of last week's bloggers, I have fallen down on the job.  And it's been a really wonderful week.  But as "my" house is quiet (kids are with grandma Janet and grandpa Steve), here I sit.  I'm starting with two of my favorite pictures, especially after reading Michael Gerson's piece on dropping his son off at college...it's coming faster than a runaway train, and I'm trying to at least run along side it.





Many, many people, close friends and absolute strangers, have questioned my sanity this year, taking off of work, traveling in such a small
car with these three boys, jumping into the abyss of not knowing what's coming next.  So far, next is filled with daily micromoments of bliss, in beautiful places, with wonderful people.  We have the same money arguments we always did, the kids still need to be asked multiple times to clean up after themselves.  But daily, I am grateful.  I am grateful for these two littlish boys who not only kiss and hug me, and tell me they love me, but I am grateful they have each other.  They've made up a term called "BLEO," which stands for Brothers Love Each Other.  As you can tell, they've become wonderful companions on this adventure.


As for that small car and tent trailer...
We took 'er out on her maiden voyage this
weekend to Whidbey Island, where my beloved Aunt Billie and Uncle Leo live.  Aunt B is my mom's oldest sister; a bonus of spending time with these absolutely wonderful people is the way Aunt B looks, talks, and moves like my mom.  I haven't heard her voice in so long, it's a joy to hear stories of her as a child and imagine her at this age.

Here is G pulling the Go for the first time out my sister's garage.

Here we are, all loaded up and ready to hit the road.  I cannot speak highly enough of audio books.  The ride up and back was all Guys Read: The Sports Pages (hey Michael Sheehan: you must listen to the final story with Benjamin!).

Math lesson for Des on this trip: figuring out how many miles we drove, how many miles to the gallon we got, and how much we paid per mile.  We might let him use a calculator.

Here we are waiting for the ferry from Port Townsend to Whidbey Island.  Please note the "little" camper in front of us.  We had quite a few visitors asking us about this contraption.  I met a guy from Mississippi who was an RPCV from Liberia in the 60's, before Mar' and Lar' Pearmine went there.  Small world.

This is the view from the deck of Aunt B's place, the lagoon and Penn Cove in the distance.  Yep.  The boys had a fabulous time in the little paddle boat tied up.  Luckily, living in China had given us a lot of experience of manning such vessels.  Only this time, there was no smoking, no one yelling "hello babies!" at the kids, paddling over to us to get a closer look.  It was, as the picture conveys, serene.  And sublime.

Gar took this maiden voyage thing seriously.  We slept in that thar tent, ate breakfast in there.  He cooked eggs on the new campstove, the whole deal.  Here are the boys and my cousin Carrie's grandgirls (4 gingers in one space!) having some Cherrios and delightful conversation, I'm sure.

 The highlight for the boys is always Uncle Leo. A retired sea captain with great stories, a bottomless love of children, and a love of adventure, Leo takes the boys into the woodshop, where all kinds of fun and misdeeds can happen. As Leo's vision and hearing aren't what they used to be, I asked uncle Rick to supervise as well (as I am confident I would ruin the fun).  They made some wood art, and Des and Leo made a stool.  Great fun with saws of all sorts, nail guns, and I don't want to know what else.

 Okay, we didn't eat EVERY meal in the tent.  Why would you when you could have this view?

 Here's where we slept.  We kept the window open, and the moon shown through.  It was amazing.  The breeze, the kingfishers, the sun and moon through the trees.  Safe to say, maiden voyage was a success.

Uncle Rick and Emmy are enjoying the view of the lagoon by the fire.  Emm said "you know, mom, Uncle Rick and dad are a lot alike.  They are both really calm and totally crazy."  I explained the really calm is a necessity when marrying a Pearmine girl, to which Rick heartily agreed.

Leo and Billie took us all out to dinner at Zorba's.  Fabulous people there, good food; they take care of the old Greek and his lovely wife, and would likely call to check on them if they missed one of their regular visits.

As we talked about our three good things by the fire, the view, and time with Aunt B and Uncle Leo, were the top of everyone's list.  And the ice cream.

Dear Leo, how we love you.  He's showing Des the ole' missing thumb trick as we pull away.  He can't get enough of the kids.  Leo always help me reset my priorities.  He is one of the most loving, fun, present people I know, and I've enjoyed every minute I've ever been around him.  And he'll outlive us all, at this rate.








We're under two weeks till takeoff, and getting excited.  AND enjoying late summer in Portland (or regular summer, I guess), with wonderful food, visits from grandparents, movies, roller derby and Trek in the Park this weekend, and who knows what else.  Can't wait for every day.

Though my jobs this week are food planning and shopping, the blogging boys are moving too slow for me.  It's Saturday morning and I'm watching Emmy try to engage in the watching of the Cardinals/Cincinnati game with Des and Gar.  Let's just say, he doesn't really get it.  He knows better than to call a run a point, but that's about it.  We're heading to the Farmer's Market in a bit, and gearing up for OMSI camp next week...Emm is learning Animation and Des is building rockets...yikes. 

It feels unsettling to read all of the returning to Shanghai posts and not be a part of it...there's even a wistful feeling thinking about United airlines delaying flights, crabby flight attendants, and whether or not the kids "did well" on the flight.  It's like a muscle memory when you've moved houses (which we've done many, many times this summer), turning the wrong way in the hallway on your way to the bathroom in the middle of the night. It's not a bad feeling, just noticing the difference.

In our new life, which involves sleeping in, figuring out what we want to do each day, enjoying thinking about what we want to eat and how to do things on the cheap, I spend a lot of time thinking about making meaning.  Gary has always been great about making meaning from the little things...watching a game, riding scooters with the kids, sitting in a friend's backyard and laughing.  I get restless, wanting to feel a bigger connection and feel like my meaning is connected to a bigger something.  That's why one of my goals this year is learning to be mindful, happy living in the moment, aware of and appreciating what's around me (which is much).

Some of the ways we're making meaning right now are weekly community service outings.  Last week we went to Mt. Tabor park and pulled English Ivy and Clematis, also known as Old Man's Beard.  Emmy and Des loved being a part of the Weed Warriors Crew, and we got to learn about how invasive plants don't utilize rain water as efficiently as native plants, and they steal resources from the native plants, which are getting choked out.  Here are some pics of my ginger warriors:

This week we talked about doing Random Acts of Kindness for our community service. We came up with the idea of Random Acts of Weeding (RAOW), and we garden-bombed an unsuspecting relative for a couple hours of weeding.  Tee hee...it was fun.  We also spent much of our family meeting time deciding what to call ourselves while we were RAOW'ing, and we landed upon the Dandy Lions.  Pictures to follow, once the photoshopping is completed.  If you know of someone who would appreciate a RAOW, let us know...we're always on the prowl!  

Most evenings we go for a scoot...I think at least one of the kids have mentioned enjoying their scooters.  Imagine motorizing a scooter and sticking Desi on top...it's a thrilling, hilarious, terrifying, frustrating, heart-stopping experience.  Sidewalk or street?  What to do when he buzzes Emm, who is working on his braking and making sure he feels under control, or taking a risk and going a little faster than he's comfortable with?  Is it bad that I occasionally wish for a wipeout just to teach a lesson about the hotdog behavior?  Des is amazingly adept at avoiding the crash.  I am learning to stay behind and walk with Gar, enjoying this time of raising little boys who enjoy hanging with us and each other.  

Boys were told to look tough...how did they do?

 Time to get out of the jammies...it is nearly 10:30!  How's Pool 1 looking, SRC?  Are the bullfrogs keeping up with the mosquito population?  What's new on Jin Feng Lu?  Eventually, we'll have another set point.  Off to eat berries in 65 degree weather! Love to you all.

Grab-Bag! What's been going on, mid-summer edition.

• We saw Weird Al Yankovic in concert at the Oregon Zoo. My favorite songs were "White & Nerdy," "Party in the CIA" and "Another Tattoo." But my most favorite was "White & Nerdy."

It was a little sunny at the zoo.

We have been house-sitting for various people, including our friends Patty and Matt. They have a dog named Goya. I cuddled him and we walked him and fed him. One of my favorite parts was when I called him silly names like Goofy Doofy Old Man. Cuz he was pretty old, like 14.

My brother and I went to 2 sleepovers. One of them was with our cousins. The most important part about the first sleepover: we watched TONS OF TV. The other was with our grandparents. The most important part of the second sleepover: I got my own skateboard. Thank you to Larry and Linda.

Photographed in SkateVision. (Just turn your head.)

Something new has started. We have been doing family meetings to plan the week. I am excited (me, Emmett) that we are planning the week. At the first meeting we ever had, I said "Skyping (my friend) Mia" is something I want to do this week. A couple days later, I Skyped Mia and so did Desi. It was nice to see her.

The Meeting (Mom is rocking a To Do list in Evernote on her phone)

The Skyping

A couple weeks ago we went to look at someone's trailer, called a Go (his name was Kani). We found out how to use it, then we ordered one. Yesterday, we saw it. It was awesome. The awesomest feature is it pops out to make a tent. We are going to be living with it on the road. We are going to be home schooled. Yaaay No School!

Kani's (such attentive listeners!)

Ours (pardon the dorky smile)

I have been creating a book on this app called Explain Everything, on my iPad mini. It's about me as an alien. The working title is "Emmyloulou from Snarfgrass." Look for it on the blog soon.

 Hi! I've been in Anchorage, Alaska for 4 days now and have had a lot of cool adventures; Riding an AWESOME limo to a wedding was the first adventure. 

The second adventure was the dance party at the wedding, because I liked to dance and I liked the music. There was a cool photo booth and I took so many pictures!! (Mom is helping me type).

 Today I went to AWCC (www.alaskawildlife.org) and saw: a bald eagle with one wing (he'd been shot), a Great Horned Owl (that was sleeping), two lynx sisters (that were also sleeping), caribou/reindeer (which are basically the same), black and brown bears (they ate hot dogs and hamburgers!), a porcupine named Chewie (who was really cute), musk ox, moose, and wood bison. 

[Dad's note: off to Juneau tomorrow!]

Hawaii is pronounced "Huh-vye-ee"

We came to grandma and grandpa’s condo

then we went to the beach for 4 days. The car was packed with stuff so the car was almost over flowing with stuff. We drove to the beach when we got to bellows air force station and there was no electricity because a tree fell on the only solar panel (the person there told us that at least).

We saw a bird that had A orange head.

We had s’more the bigger then Emmett’s fist and they melted so much we got them all over our faces. [Dad's note: We had s'mores twice, once at night and once during the day, to make the most efficient use of our lunch campfire. Also for research purposes. Turns out, Day S'Mores are really tasty.]

On the first night there were these people and they were very loud and one guy said “this is the best guitar solo ever” and we woke up at 11:00pm. It was so annoying. Almost every day I went boogie boarding. It was very fun. 

Dinner at Buzz's in Kailua:

Then last night my brother and I slept on the floor. 

[Dad's note: Off to Alaska tonight!]