Mountain biking in Nelson Preserve

The kids and I have been having so much fun biking in our new neighborhood. I taught Sydney to go down the steep hill on her bike and she is doing great with that. Next up for her is going on the dirt trails. Luke loves to go to the rock quarry.  When we went last week their was a guy on his dirt bike going up and down the quarry, doing wheelies. Ava and I like venture out on excursions that can last a couple hours.

Yesterday we decided to follow a dirt path along the edge of the ridge by the river. We had so much fun stopping along the way taking photos!  We went about 2 miles out and turned around because I didn’t bring water and we were dying of thirst. It was a more humid cloudy day... so cool but not too cool and we didn’t have to worry about the hot sun. We found a rock quarry along our way, an abandoned shed with graffiti, the Cle Elum river which was so clear you could see to the bottom, a bench overlooking the view, a huge pile of boulders, and beautiful wild flowers along the way.

Lucy vs. the Elk

Yesterday evening Luke and I were hanging with the dogs in the backyard. I had just hung the hammock and we were planning on relaxing. Sometimes when I am in the backyard, I unleash the dogs and let them Run in the yard.

Well, Lucy saw elk at the bottom of our hill and her instinct set in... she took off down the hill and chased them a mile away! Luke immediately took off after her (lionheart). I yelled at Ava to grab to grab the bags of treats to lure Lucy but she was so far out by then. So Ava and I took off in our slippers after Luke and Lucy. We could not find them for 5-10 minutes in the woods. It was so scariest 5-10 minutes of our lives!  We both had scary visions of worst case scenarios. We were telling their names and it was silent.

Then all of a sudden we heard Luke respond... he almost had an asthma attack and he ran after her all the way to the ridge by the river where she chased the elk.  This is a kid who hates to run and he kept up with Lucy and the Elk. Eventually the Elk stopped and Lucy just stood there looking at them. Luke felt very small. He heard us yelling his name and then we saw Lucy and Ava grabbed her. It happened so fast and was scary... when we walked back home we had realized just how far we had ran and had no idea how far it really was!! It was nuts!!

Coronavirus 2020

The world has changed quite a bit since my last post a few years ago. I thought this may be a good time to start writing again since we are in lockdown and have been for a over a month.  Luckily, the timing of building our vacation home in Cle Elum worked out!  According to the internet their are only 16 Covid-19 cases here as opposed to thousands in Bothell. We were about 10 minutes from the epicenter at the beginning of the debacle in February. The Life Center of Kirkland was the first place that had many deaths in the US. I pulled the kids from school earlier than most because I had been reading about this Coronavirus since China announced it in January 2020. As a person who gets anxious about diseases and getting ill, I intently watched it unfold and sadly sicken many in China.  I feared it but knew it was only a matter of time before it reached the US. As soon as I heard it was spreading in our community, in late February, I took the kids out of school.  The superintendent, Michell Reid, cancelled school and the teachers took a week to try to put together an online learning model for the district. The first go of it was pretty impressive. Anyone who didn’t have a computer was allowed to pick one up.  Within a couple weeks of that when we realized school not be meeting in the physical classroom for a long while, the district revamped online learning and that is where we are at now.

Luke seems to have the least amount of work in 7th grade. Ava and Sydney has daily zoom meetings and quite a few assignments. Ava can navigate through her schedule independently, while Sydney needs to me to go through it with her daily. After a week, and me putting aside expectations, Sydney and I have hit a groove.  This might prove to be the best and most efficient way for her to learn Yet... 1x1.  She has a hard time focusing during classroom discussions but it is good for her to see her classmates daily at the very least. Other kids are struggling with this “shelter at place” way of life but I have to say that my kiddos are doing just fine with it as of now. Ava gets the most stir crazy, but she and I head out on long bike rides and she accompanied me to the store... n95 masks, gloves and all...

There are toilet paper, paper towel and cleaning supply shortages. We had to go get alcohol to disinfect from the distillery in Roslyn. Trips to grocery store happen for us every 3 weeks and are exhausting and stressful. The cart is so full that food is falling out. Frozen fruit and veggies for the most part have replaced most fresh choices.. unless it has a thick skin.  After a trip to the store, everything is laid out in the garage and wiped down with a clorox wipe or sprayed with alcohol. Fresh fruits and veggies and soaked in colloidal silver in the sink. Then, all of the door knobs, and our hands are disinfected too many times to count. Luckily we found that Swiftwater Winery, here in Suncadia is making carry out meals that are delicious and affordable so we have been ordering that twice a week so I can have a break from cooking.