Liberty Lake Hike



 

We went on a hike a few weeks ago with the Lang family.  Kent is leading a hike tomorrow with the Cub Scout Pack, and being the good Eagle Scout that he is, he thought he should be prepared and know the trail.  We were his guinea pigs, to see how far was a reasonable distance for all the boys.  I have to say, I am pretty sure my little, six year old  girls will out hike any of those scouts. I was so proud of them.  We ended up hiking 7 miles with an elevation change of 1000 feet. (I know, I didn't realize Spokane had hills that tall).  ;)   It took 4, somewhat grueling hours with 5 kids, but boy were they proud when they finished!

                                                Gavin, Kaiden, Brayden,  Dani and Ellie

                                                            Chris, Jackie, Kaiden, Gavin

                                                                My  boys

                                                                    My babies

 When we finally got to the water fall, the kids asked, "Is this really it?"  The last hike we went on was up to Multnomah Falls.  They were slightly disappointed.  :)

 

4th of July fun

 

I just figured out how to upload my phone pics., so these next few posts will be out of order.  I finally got a smart phone (I am in love)!

 

 

We went grocery shopping on the 4th of July and kind of felt sorry for ourselves because we weren't out on a boat on a lake somewhere.  Last minute we went to Liberty Lake park to watch the fire works with the Langs.  I have never wanted to deal with the crowds (I grew up in Vancouver where they have "The biggest fireworks show West of the Mississippi", where it was a nightmare to get home. Plus I am old now), so we have never ventured out.

 

We had a great night though, we found a spot that wasn't too crowded, watched the 10 minute show and we were home 10  minutes later.  Success!

Valley Girl!



 

 

This was the first year that I participated in the Valley Girl sprint triathlon.  It was fantastic because it was only 5 miles from home, which meant that I didn't have to wake up at the crack of dawn.  The downside was that it's that hardest course that I have ever done.  This race may have pushed me into early retirement.  :)

 

Kelsey snapped this picture as I exited the swim.  I was elated to be done with that portion.  It took me 16 minutes to swim 1/3 of a mile, which seemed like an eternity.  I didn't feel like I was making any progress while I was in the lake.  My age group was the biggest pack there.  There were an insane amount of people in the water during my heat.  I ingested water right away and never recovered with a normal breathing pattern.



 Kent got these pictures as I cruised by.  The bike was difficult, it was windy and hilly.

 The run wasn't much fun either, (hilly and hot) am I convincing anyone how great sprint tris are?  I really do enjoy competing, but this was a rough day for me.....not exactly sure why. 

 

 My little cheering squad, I tell ya, it makes all the difference to see your sweet family yelling for you.  I was so happy to see them along the tortuous route. 

This was the 10th anniversary for the Valley Girl race.  In celebration they gave each participant a medal, kind of fun.

 



Race weekend, first up: Dirty Dash

 

 

We had a busy weekend a few weeks ago.  Dirty Dash on Saturday and my sprint triathlon on Sunday.  First up, the Dirty Dash!  This was our third year participating and it was the best yet! 

 

 

Uncle Pete was in town from Florida, so he got to join us, and Kelsey, my fabulous friend from college, drove over from Seattle.  Our friends, the Langs, also joined us.

 

(These pics uploaded out of order and I don't have the patience to redo it).

 

                                                                 The boys before the race.
                                                 Jeremy, Jake, Chris, Kent and Uncle Pete

                                                                        After pic.

 

 

 

Before pics.

                                                              Kelsey and me before the race.

 

Service Project

 Another scout weekend.  The boys took off Sunday morning to paint EIGHT handicapped parking spaces at the Hub.  The girls and I stopped by at the beginning and snapped some pictures, then headed to the Y for a swim.

 Then we stopped by at the end to take some pictures of the finished project.  The eight boys (and parents) did a great job, especially in the 80+ degree heat!

 

Family Camp

 The Phillips family survived their first camping trip!  I have to say that I was a little nervous that our maiden voyage was with a bunch of professional scouting families.  But I think we packed half of our house and took it with us.  We were loaded down, but there wasn't anything that we needed that we didn't have.  Kent's last two weekends of wood badge camping came in handy.  He came home with lots of ideas and tips on how to be a good camper.   :)  Nothing like camping with 30 other adults, you're bound to learn some new tricks. 

When we set out for family camp it was 56 degrees and raining.  It continued to rain throughout our camp set up (there has to be a term for this, I am not thinking of it), so we were nice and drenched, along with most of our stuff.  Which was fine, we came prepared.  :)  After that, the sky cleared and it was mostly just overcast throughout the weekend, which made for some chilly nights.  I am so thankful that I threw in winter hats and gloves.  We all slept with them on, along with wool blankets, while we burrowed in our sleeping bags.  Did I mention that we had fun?

 It really was a great weekend, the kids wanted to live there forever.  They rode bikes and explored the forest, unfortunately a foreign concept to my kids.  It's sad to think that my childhood memories mostly surround a forest and all the games we played within it.  This may have been the first time that my kids were inside of one.  :( 

                                                  The ritual hike to end family camp.

 The cub scout pack has tons of traditions that surround family camp.  Most of which we were oblivious to, since we had never been.  This makes it difficult to be in charge and head this activity (Kent), luckily Wayne, (Kent's assistant) took on the enormous task of planning the majority of family camp and all the activities that surrounded it.  We still didn't see Kent most of the weekend because he was "Cub Mastering" everyone and everything, it's amazing how much drama and BS occurs with 20 some families in one weekend.  Holy exhaustion.  I am not a quitter, but I know without a doubt that if I were Kent, I would have quit his position a long time ago.  Way to hold strong Babe!  ;)

                                                    The scouts that attended family camp.

One successful Family Camp weekend in the books!

Friends!

 I had to stick this picture in here because I am so thrilled with it!  I bought a Groupon from Project Repat  (www.projectrepat.com)  for this quilt.  I sent in 30 of my old shirts and they put this together for me!  It makes me smile whenever I look at it.  There are 15+ years of memories in that thing.  If you are in need of something like this, I strongly encourage you to check this company out.  I am saving my children's shirts already for one of their own someday.

The first weekend of Summer started out with a BLAST!  My college friend, Kelsey, and her family came for a visit.  It was so wonderful to be able to hang out and catch up with her and Brian.  Plus, I got to spend some fun times with Eli while his parents headed to a wedding.  He was so easy, he got along wonderfully with my kids and they just played and played all day.

 After a long, fun day in the sun we decided to go and try to shoot some family pictures.  Apparently, they have never had any done.  I am by no means any where close to know what I am doing, but I had a good time and I think we got at least a few good shots! 

 This picture cracks me up, I think it represents their little family so well.

Thanks for a fun weekend Graves family, we can't wait until next time!