hiking the pipeline

yesterday, after church, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a hike on the pipeline trail. it’s about a mile from our house, and not too terribly difficult. lots of ups and downs though. we saw horses on the trail, lots of dogs, and tons of people. it’s a popular spot. we kind of just kept going, to see how far the kids wanted to go. they decided they wanted to go all the way into town, so that’s where we went. there’s a tully’s just down the road from where the trail crosses the main road, so we stopped there and sat down for a while over coffee and hot chocolate. then we turned around and headed back up and over.

along the sidewalk near the tully’s I spotted little patches that looked like this! little green leaves from bulbs (probably daffodils or crocuses) poking through the dirt. LOVE it! spring WILL come!

the old hollywood schoolhouse is right across the intersection from the tully’s. layla wanted me to take her picture there. (I guess this is her ‘dancing on the edge of the hollywood sign’.)

the first hill back up is brutal. it’s known as heart attack or cardiac hill. we had the brilliant idea to search out geocaches on the way back. that gave the little kids (who were a little whiny) something to distract them. the sky was all kinds of crazy cool. totally awesome with the olympics off in the distance.

some various caches we found. layla wanted to write her name in every one.we were about to give up on this one when I spotted it: a weird selfie with the sun shining through my ear. nice. the final stretch. those are the cascades off in the distance. totally awesome when you can look one direction and see one mountain range, then turn around and see the other one. love it!

total we did about 6.4 miles. layla did it all on foot. micah did about half, and then half in the backpack. my legs are a little sore today, but not bad.

dave and I have plans to actually do the WHOLE pipeline trail one day. either just us, or us and shane.

not sure of the actual mileage on it, because it there are a few places it jogs off and you have to pick it up on the other side of a freeway or something. but we could do it in a day. can’t wait!

Comments

vomit phobia

most people who know me relatively well are aware of my ridiculous fear of vomit. so essentially, the last year or so has been the embodiment of my worst nightmare. we have now embarked on stomach flu episode 4 of the last 13 months. is that not ridiculous? is that not excessive? what's the deal? should i be concerned? or maybe i'm just paying my dues. shane never had the stomach flu until he was 6, but now we've got it all the time. since may last year, he's now had it 3 times. between january and november of last year, layla had it 3 times, and now we're just waiting to see when she's going to come down with this latest strain. WHAT THE HECK! i never had it this often as a kid. maybe i was just lucky. i don't know. is this normal? how many times can you get this stuff in a certain amount of time before you should think that something is wrong? and how can you prevent it, if at all? i don't really think we have weak immune systems. th

hello again

my mom actually complained the other day about my lack of posts lately. REALLY. i told her that i’d had nothing to write about. at any rate, here’s my update for now, in relation to recent things. we did decide to trick or treat. it was fun. shane’s mario costume actually came together pretty well, thanks to a little help from my friends. layla’s flower costume also happened, barely, also with a little help from my friends. (are you detecting a theme here?) micah’s monkey costume was borrowed from a friend. (for some reason, i have a beatles song wandering through my head right now, do you?) here they are: as i’m writing this, it’s reminding me of just how blessed i am to be a part of this community, family, neighborhood, etc. let me expound that part about a little help from my friends: we’ll start with shane. he got the idea to dress up as mario after his friend, sean, mentioned that he was going to be luigi. so i chatted w/ trudy about what she’d gathered so far. she mentioned a g

homemaking 101... ponderings, ramblings... the usual.

so i've been analyzing lately (because that's what i do) why i get so frustrated with myself, my shortcomings in the areas of housekeeping and organization, creativity, cooking, etc. it would seem that i'm trying to live up to the expectations of june cleaver, or my grandmother, or something equally unrealistic. no, i don't expect to push the vacuum and baste a turkey in heels and pearls, (besides, i have the roomba , remember?), but i do expect more of myself than i have been giving currently. why? i've been doing what i usually do when i have an issue i want to know more about; i check out every book the library has on the subject (organization problems anyone?). there are a LOT of books out there written by homemakers, for homemakers with a lot of different slants on the whole subject. interestingly enough, the view that disturbs me the most is not the one that suggests that God has decreed it so that women have no other calling than to be wives and mothers (alt

week 34 in pictures

sunday: dueling floor cleaning machines. I was vacuuming and dave was steam cleaning. monday: layla and micah, sharing a set of headphones and dave’s old iphone to listen to music. tuesday: a relaxing morning spent in jeans and slippers, working on a knitting project… it felt like fall. brrr… wednesday: we had a meeting to attend at church that was paired with dinner. shane got put in charge of grilling the burgers on the big commercial range… we were teasing him about his ‘career training’… “do you want fries with that?” thursday: shane had an appointment at the dr’s office for a sports physical so he can run cross country this fall. he needed one shot (which he majorly pouted about)… poor baby. friday: layla was going around taking pictures that she wants to put in a scrapbook (love this!) and she wanted me to take one of her with ginger. isn’t this adorable!?! saturday: SOCCER!!! layla’s team participated in a jamboree this weekend. they played 4 games on saturday, just to get

Snow day memories

Some day, I'll get around to finishing the story of our epic 3 week long road trip from 6 months ago... But today, we have snow. And no school. And neighborhood kids building igloos in the front yard. And hot chocolate. And sleds and shovels and a rack in front of the fireplace that's literally dripping with hats and gloves and snow pants. I like the snow, in case you can't tell. Actually, I love the snow. Like L O V E the snow. It used to be, that when snow was predicted, I would glue myself to the tv, watching all 3 or 4 channels of local news, morning and evening. (This is significant because I am not a news-watcher. I actually hate the news.) Now that the way we watch tv has turned into something completely different, and we don't even subscribe to any channels, I'm glued to my weather app (or apps, actually), watching, days in advance to see if that snowflake still stays on that day. What % chance is it? How much accumulation? Is there an advisory? A warning? I

rachel's continued ramblings

Search This Blog