Mt Rainier

Mt Rainier National Park!  My favorite place to camp in the whole world!  Well, maybe its kind of like labor where you think it wasn't so bad once you are a few years removed from it.  Every summer as a kid my family would camp at Cougar Rock campground and hike the mountain.  We would be on the trails all day without a water bottle or fruit snacks to keep us going.  No real destination, just up the mountain!  And it didn't matter how young the legs were, we did it without any complaints!  At least that's how I remembered it 30 years later :)  So that was my plan for our trip this time.  We met up with my sister Samantha and her family on Friday afternoon.  We set up our tents and got our spaces ready and then we just messed around that afternoon.  That evening we were so excited to see the Ranger program at the amphitheater, just like we did when we were kids, but it was awful!  This poor ranger was sooo boring, and her subject (stewards of Mt Rainier) was sooo boring that Darcy and Bree fell asleep and it was all Paul and Mason could do to stay awake too.  It was the worst one I had seen there and of course it happened to be the one I took my family to after hyping it up to them.  The next evening just Samantha and I went and it was great!  All about amphibians in the park.  The ranger was funny and the tipsy group in the back added to the fun :)  Too bad the kids missed that one.

 This is Cougar Rock.  Its in the middle of the camp ground and we took pictures on it every year with my family.  Just keeping the tradition going with my own kids.  It seems to have shrunk since I was a little kid :)

Saturday we hiked the mountain!  Or at least, that was the idea.  As I said before when we were kids we hiked the mountain for 6 hours without any nourishment no matter how young up hill, both ways!  Well, Paul was wondering just what the point of our hike was when we found ourselves trying to cross snow fields with little bodies slipping and sliding all over the mountain.  I think it is a late melt this year, there was much more snow than usual.

So we reconnoitered after some "discussion" and decided to go back down the mountain a bit and hit the trail that actually had a waterfall as a destination.  It was a good choice.  The waterfall was pretty and it was a much easier hike for the little ones.  I sure wanted to head up the mountain though.  Oh!  We finally found a bear!  We have been to almost 30 National Parks and never saw a bear till we got to Rainier.  It was a big black momma bear and two cubs.  You can see her in the picture and her cubs are hiding in the shade of the trees on the right.  We were so excited to see bears in the wild!

That afternoon my sister Candace and her family caught up to us, about the time the weather turned and it started to rain.  That evening was pretty miserable when all you have is a tent for cover.  We were trying to sit under the trees but still within sight distance of the fire.  I think everyone went to bed in damp sleeping bags and many woke up in the night soaked.  I stayed dry miraculously but I think I might have been the only one.  Camping in the rain is no fun.  Oh, and this is an old campground without electric or water hook-ups, which is fine, but there were no showers and the nearest water spigot was at the bathrooms which were on a trail through other people's camp sites.  At least they had flush toilets!  As a kid, all this matters not at all so of course I didn't remember any of it.  As an adult in charge of a crew of people it matters quite a bit!  We still had a great time but it was definitely throw-back camping.  I guess I'll still call it my favorite place to camp due to the MANY memories there, but it wasn't the easiest place to camp.   We did have a campfire and roasted marshmallows so what am I complaining about, right?

On Sunday we packed up our wet things and headed to the other side of the park, a place we never visited when I was young, to check out the Grove of the Patriarchs, an old growth forest.  Candace's family got totally soaked in their tent and when they got to the visitor's center on the mountain where the trails start the mountain was all clouded over so they couldn't see anything.  We were supposed to meet them at the grove but they just headed back home to Dallas instead.  I think its safe to say this wasn't their favorite place to camp.  We enjoyed the big trees though!    There was a cool suspension bridge only one at a time could cross and we all had fun crossing that.  The trees were huge!  Thousand year old cedars and fir trees.  Very beautiful.  A bunch of us were able to fit in the roots of a fallen tree.  All in all it was a good trip and Bree, who had been looking forward all summer to camping at "Mountain Reindeer" called it a success.  Still have to decide if we'll try it again in the near future though.

July Birthdays

 July, on both sides of our family, is full of birthdays.  Darcy and I are lucky enough to be two days apart, with my birthday two days after the 4th of July, so we party for about a week straight!  We went to Corvallis for a picnic and fireworks with family and I had my birthday cake then.  My real birthday fell on Fast Sunday so I pretty much didn't bother trying to make it worth anything.  Poor me.  When I turned 13 my birthday also fell on a Fast Sunday.  I sooooo didn't want to be a teenager so I thought that birthday on a Fast Sunday was about as bad as you could get.  Just call me Eeyore.  Darcy, on the other hand, had a great birthday!  She was excited to turn 6 and be a big kid.  Our house is big on My Little Ponies all of a sudden (Mason included) so Darcy requested a pony cake.  At first I was going to have to recreate Rainbow Dash on a cake top but she let me off the hook and I ended up frosting grass with a river and she put her ponies around it.  Whew!  She received a Rainbow Dash stuffed animal, a Lego horse barn set that both she and Drew wanted and she got it!  Yeah Darce!  You beat Drew!  Drew was not happy but she ended up building most of it for Darcy anyway.  She also got Juggle Bubbles (as seen on TV).  All in all it was a great birthday I think.  Darcy is excited to go to school full time this fall, hoping to have her best friends in her class again, and looking for just the right Little Pony lunch box to carry with her.  She is such a big girl, I would guess she is 7 by looking at her but nope, just 6.  She is just shy of Mason's growth chart at this age and well beyond where Drew was.  She will probably be my tallest girl.  Darcy is still my sunshine baby.  She has a smile that lights up the room and she can be, at times, my easiest to deal with.  Not to say that she doesn't have her struggles but she is a very obedient little person and never throws me attitude.  I love my precious little red-head!  Happy Birthday Darcy!

As you can see, Bree got a Little Pony too.  She threw a fit when she saw Darcy's so we gave her her Fluttershy stuffed animal we bought at the same time.  We justified it by saying it was the gift she never chose when she was potty trained.  All the others were bribed with a gift but she never needed the bribe, she just did it.  Must be nice to be the youngest and get everything you want!

Busy, Busy, Busy!

School's out!  Its time to relax!  Except relaxing isn't what the Ericksons do best I guess.  Not that I would mind chilling out for a day or two but when there are four active kids and a mom and dad who want them to experience life, there are few dull moments anymore.  School got out on the 13th and I'm happy to say we got through the year with little drama or turmoil and all 3 kids passed!  Whew!  We'll have 3 full-timers and Bree starts preschool in the fall.  What will mom do to fill her time?  The afternoon/evening of the 13th I had to attend Young Women Standards Night which was really horrible timing for my family.  I knew the last day would be an emotional day for the kids and sure enough, I left the house at 4 to 3 kids crying and also myself teary-eyed at the thought of having to leave them like that.  Secretly (now publicly) I was thankful for the threat of rain that turned an over-nighter into an afternoon/eveninger activity.  It was a good time but I felt bad abandoning my kids.  The next morning Paul got up early to drop Mason off for his ride to the cubmobile races in Scappoose and then on to help some people move, while the girls and I got ready for Drew's piano recital at 10.  Paul got home in time to shower and get us to the recital where Drew did a smashing job on her piece.  She likes the piano enough to sign up for her third year, but I think she is also ready for a break.  After the recital we raced to Scappoose in the hopes of watching a bit of Mason's race but it was over when we got there.  He said he had fun, we'll take his word for it.  Adding scouts to our schedule is busy but so far so good.  That afternoon we attended two graduation parties for wonderful young women who are going to go far in this world!  I think we all came home after that and crashed.  Sunday I taught at church and it was also Father's Day so we made Paul BBQ his steak dinner :)  We love Dad!

 Monday morning I signed the kids up for free swimming lessons.  All four were happy to get back in the pool but I think Drew and Mason are good enough that I won't pay for lessons for them anymore.  That afternoon the kids and I drove to Corvallis to stay with my parents and get Drew started at OSU basketball camp!  I went for 3 summers growing up, it was a longer camp then, and I had a blast so I was hoping Drew and Darcy would feel the same.  Drew was on a team of 5th grade girls and her coach was one of the current Beaver women players, Ali Gibson, and she liked her a lot.  She played ball for 3 hours an afternoon, 4 days in a row.  It was a lot of basketball and there were sore muscles but I believe she had a great time.  She wants to go again next summer but she'll be with the big girls then so it will be a different experience.  She did well and got the player of the day award for her team on Tuesday.  Go Drew!

 On Tuesday Darcy started her camp with her PeeWee camp with her cousin Ruqayyah.  We thought if the girls were there together they might do better and have more fun.  And boy did they ever!  We left Drew and Darcy at Aunt Sammy's after camp on Tuesday and Mason, Bree and I drove home that night to use Wednesday to get ready for our camping trip.  We also threw in blueberry picking on Wednesday so that was another full, full day for us.  Oh, Mason and Bree also got in another free swimming lesson that morning.  Aunt Sammy got the girls to camp Wednesday evening (Darcy and Ruqayyah's camp was 2 hours long for 3 days) and they stayed another night without us.  That was the first time for the girls sleeping away from both parents and they did great.  They were actually having so much fun with cousins that I don't think they really even missed us :(  I missed them though and was happy to see them Thursday!  We got the girls to camp that evening for their last session.  Drew got the "Best Teammate" award for her team and Darcy got the "Shooting Star" award for hers.  She also got an award the first night for "Best Energy."  Go Darcy!  I'm not sure I had her pegged as such an athlete but after T-Ball and basketball I can definitely say this girl has some skills!  And she's stinking cute too.  She plans on returning next year too, as will Bree who was desperate to get out there and play with Darcy.  At the end of camp all the girls got to take a basketball home!  They even gave Bree a ball and she chose the mini pink and black one of course.  One more year of balls and I will have enough for when I coach my own team!  Thanks OSU, we had a great time!

 

 

 Friday morning we went grocery shopping and headed out to our camping adventure at River Bend county park just east of Sweet Home.  We camped there last year to try out our new trailer and really liked it so we set up an Erickson family camping trip this year.  The timing wasn't the best, it would have been nice to go home and relax for a while, but we still had fun hanging out with even more cousins!  Unfortunately we were tent camping, which I never do well.  I didn't get any sleep for the two nights we were there and I came home and crashed Sunday night.  The days are fine but the nights are murder.  Especially when the air mattress loses its air in the night so Bree rolls over on top of me to sleep.  But that was actually OK since it was about 40 below zero in the nights and we were all FROZEN!  I missed the trailer :(  But we had fun hiking to a waterfall, playing kickball and frisbee with the whole family, visiting the fish hatchery and feeding the fish, wading in the Santiam river, and filling up on 89 cent slushies at the Circle K not far from our camp ground!  We had a great time with everyone and are looking forward to camping in July with my family at Mt Rainier, my favorite camping place on earth!  This week we don't get to slow down as we recover and get things back in order, and Drew has Activity Day Girl's Camp Wednesday-Friday.  The fun never ends around here and I guess we wouldn't want it any other way.  Welcome to summer!

P.S.  I am really missing being out on the road for 55 days.  I keep changing the background on the computer with pictures of where we were a year ago today.  The kids are sick of me reminding them every morning where we were and what we were doing a year ago (stuck in Texas, visiting alligators today :))

Mason's Big Day(s)!

Mason turned 8 this year on one of the busiest days on our calendar.  For some reason everyone thought the 20th would be a good day to schedule school performances and t-ball games, not to mention Drew's weekly piano lesson.  The little girls and I attended Mason's Under the Sea school performance dress rehearsal during the school day then rushed to the store to get his balloons and party fixings.  Drew had her lesson and we rushed to Papa Murphy's for Mason's annual sausage and pepperoni (yuck!) birthday pizza, choked it down, and went to Darcy's t-ball game.  Paul got home from work and picked Mason up from the park to get him to his school performance that evening.  We all met up at YoPlace, the self-serve yogurt place the kids love, to have birthday "cake."  I'm so glad he chose that route so I didn't have fit decorating a cake in there.  After yogurt we rushed home to open gifts and get to bed an hour past bedtime on a school night.  What a crazy day but Mason is pretty crazy so it was fitting I guess!  He got a Razor Spark scooter, an electric connect set, and a tennis racket and balls which we will use during Tiff's Tennis Camp this summer.  Must be nice to be 8!  This last year Mason has grown a ton.  He is only a half inch shorter than Drew now.  He is an excellent student at school and an avid reader at home.  I love my crazy little (big) guy and couldn't have asked for a better son.  And I would never ask for another son so I'll just appreciate the one special son I have :)  Love you Mase!

 Because Mason turned 8 he was eligible to be baptized.  There were two other kids in the ward turning 8 in May so we had a baptism for all three.  We were able to streamline the process and we only took 50 minutes to have three kids baptized and confirmed along with the rest of the program!  Nice!  Uncles Roland and Scott were the baptism witnesses to Paul baptizing Mason, and they also joined in the confirmation circle with Brother Terry Howell and Bishop Naillon while Paul confirmed Mason a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.  Two down, two to go for our family!  It was a nice program and afterwards we went home to stuff our family with tacos and ice cream!  It was a great day and we had lots of family members show up.  Let's see if I remember them all:  Grandma Erickson, Sequoia, Diego, Aunt Carmen, Kendall, Aunt Alloa, Uncle Scott, Uncle Roland, Aunt Star, Maple, Koa, Asa, Grandma and Grandpa Nedry, Aunt Stacy, Max, Aunt Candace, Madison, Kennedy, Aunt Sammy, Uncle Shane, Ruqayyah, Silas, and the 6 of us.  29?  That's a lot of love and support for one special guy.  Thanks to all who attended Mason's big day!  We bought him his very own scriptures with his name engraved on them a few weeks ago so he is good to go!  This afternoon he starts cub scouts and he is thrilled.  I never payed attention to my little brother because he is 8 years younger than me so this boy stuff is all new to me.  Luckily he has a dad who has been there and done that to help him through :)  Congratulations Mason, we love you and are proud of the great kid you have become!

Baseball/T-Ball Season

Here are my spring ballers!  Mason was on the baseball farm team again and Darcy played her first year of t-ball.  Mason knew exactly what to expect so no big deal.  Darcy had no idea what to expect and was tentative about playing but she always had a smile on her face and said she had lots of fun in the end.  I think she and Bree will play t-ball together next year, and we're thinking about switching them to the softball league.  As for Mason?  Not quite sure yet.  I was hoping he would learn to dislike baseball enough to not want to play again next year because he will move up to minors which means traveling to games.  I was not, however, hoping he would have a miserable season.  For some reason we only had a week or two of practices before games and then all practices stopped.  That meant the only time the kids had to work on any skills was in a game situation, and they only got to hit twice a game if they were lucky.  There was very little skill improvement all the way around.  Last year he did really well for his age.  This year he was pretty much stagnant and I'm pretty sure miserable most of the time.  He only got a couple hits all season and the games are so darn slow at times they just stand in the field and never touch a ball all game.  Though there was one game where he had a hit and he was responsible for getting 3 outs all by himself for the team!  He actually caught a pop-fly which was a great moment :) and he fielded the ball for outs on first and third bases as he was playing those positions.  Great game!  At that point I thought I had lost the battle and we would be watching him play in minors next year, but that was one gem in a pile of coal.  I'm pretty sure(?) he won't be playing next year.  Darcy had her ups and downs but she had some good friends on the team and had a good time.  She want's to play next year for sure.  I'm glad the season is over, we were gone in the evenings 3 or 4 nights a week and then Saturday's were shot since they both played hours apart.  Its fun to watch but after awhile I just want my life back.  Now, on to summer fun!

I love how their feet don't touch the ground!