Rainier Valley Trail

Saturday I decided it was finally time to take a break from the yard and the house and take the kids to do something fun.  Last year I bought some books that tell where you can go to hike some good trails.  One of them is called "Day Hikes for Kids".   The book is great and it tells you what level the hikes are so you know if your kids can handle it depending on what their ages ares.  I found one that was not too far away and we headed out.  

We stopped and got some subway sandwiches along the way and then made our way up to the turn off.  This trail is called the Rainier View Trail.  You head past Enumclaw about 31 miles and then take forest service rd 7174 to the left.  You have to drive up a dirt road about 6 miles and then you come out in a clearing where there is a parking lot.  You can camp up there as well but we were just there for the day.  The trail is about 1 1/2 miles up so a round trip of 3 miles.   The view is amazing when you get to the top!  It is well work the hike up.  It was not too steep but Maddy, my 8 year old wasn't liking it towards the end.  There were lots of wildflowers to pick, snow mounds that still had not melted that the kids could slide down.  Who would think you'd find snow in July?

You could also see Mt. Adams off in the distance and the panoramic view of the Rainier Valley was amazing.  Even the dogs had a good time, including Peppy, my parents dog.  Jack was a looking more like a brown dog though by the time we got back to the car.  It was a bit dusty and he's pure white, not a good combination!  

My kids have asked every day this week what new hikes we can go on.  I wish we had more free days to just take off and explore.  There are so many beautiful places here in Washington to see.  I've lived here a good chunk of my life and I'm still awed by how many places I've come upon that I didn't know existed!  

My kids had a great time, got some exercise, and this was my first hike since my knee surgery in April!  Funny thing was, my left knee hurt more than the knee I had surgery on?  Weird huh!  I recommend this to anyone who wants to get an awe inspiring view of Mount Rainier!

Cameron by a little stream at the bottom of the trail.

Maddy on top of a huge snow mound!

Jordan with Mt. Rainier in the background.  I was terrified he was going to fall off the cliff!

Cameron, Jordan, and Maddy with Jack and Pep.

Craig's New Office!!

Well, after 6 years of being in private practice, we are finally moving to our own building!  We are set to move the office the first week of September.  The build out inside has started and they are already sheet-rocking the place.  It's going to be double the size with state of the art equipment.  We have been negotiating on and off for the past three years to get into this building that we have the option to purchase, not just lease.   We have been working with the design team over the last few months and I think we've come up with a great interior that will compliment the lovely exterior.   We will be taking up half the building and the other side is being leased out by another doctor.   Finally, we'll be in a new, modern, and attractive building.  Stay tuned for a few more updates as thing progress!

Front View Sawyer Village.  Craig is taking the end of the building on the right side since it's the bigger end.  We wanted the other end but the shape of the interior was tough to work in and we had better options on the other end.  The view of Mt. Rainier is pretty nice on a sunny day!

Interior Colors.  This photo does not do them justice I think!  I can't wait to see it all put together.  The inspiration for me came from the granite tile.  We revolved everything around that and it all came together nicely.  My carpet floor in the background sorta distracts from it all!  

Sawyers Village entrance.

Side View looking West.

Book Review's

I wanted to write and recommend some good reading to those who like reading about important topics that affect our lives:

Glen Beck's book "An Inconvenient Book" is hilarious and to the point.  It's worth reading for sure.  He's a talk and radio show host.  He has a show on CNN that is great.  His book is an eye opener and I love how he tells it how it is.  He's also LDS, my favorite chapter is about how women help keep their husbands groomed.  Cracked me up.....so true.....you must read it.

"The Truth About the Fair Tax" is also worth reading.  The author's are Boortz and Linder.  It's an eye opening book about our tax system and in my opinion, a great idea for tax reform.   It's not a "flat tax", it's a fair tax or consumption tax.  Read it and see what you think!

"Liberal Fascism" by Jonah Goldberg is also a fascinating read.  It is not an easy book to get through though and I suggest having a dictionary close by when reading it.  It goes into the history of fascism and how America is a part of it.   Very interesting book and an intense read.  It will take me awhile to get thru this one.  I'm 1/3 of the way thru and I wish I had more time to read so I could get thru it faster!

"Fleeced" by Dick Morris is also one I wouldn't miss reading.  Dick Morris was Clinton's former aide and he's now on Fox New's as an analyst.  He delves into the politics, lobbyist and special interests, what we can expect if Obama becomes president, and many other topics we should all become aware of.  He is a non partisan insider that shed's light on all the ways our government is fleecing the the American people.  Great book, very eye opening for sure.  Made me so mad to read it.....lists thing we can do as citizens to stop the madness! 

Last but not least...."The Aboke Girls" is the true story of the Ugandan school girls that were abducted by Joseph Kony and his LRA rebels that terrorized Uganda for the past 20 years.  The girl that was the housekeeper where we stayed in Kampala, Uganda, was one of the Aboke Girls and her life was spared since she was not at the school the night the rebels came.  I had the privilege of having her tell me and my family the story first hand.  I then found this book and devoured it on my way home from Africa.  It tells a lot about the war in Northern Uganda.  Certainly worth reading if your interested in the plight of the African's who suffer so much!

Now if I just knew how to download the books covers off the internet so I can add them to the blog......sorry, google them I guess!  Curious to see if anyone else has read these and if they have or do, what they think? 

Kent Cornucopia Soccer Tournament

This past weekend Jordan and Cameron played in the Kent Cornucopia Soccer Tournament. It was a game filled weekend.  Cameron's team, which I coach is with the Maple Valley Rapids program.  They are the first ever U10 Developmental team which is the select program for kids at this age.  They placed 4th overall in their bracket which was pretty great since these were the the first real games they have played together.   I didn't get a photo of them.  I'm hoping I'll be able to add a photo of them later on if one of my parents sends one on.  Cameron played great, especially the last game. He had a great time finally being able to play like his big brothers do on a real "select" team.

Jordan plays for the Federal Way Storm boys U15 team.  This is the team I've coached for the past 2 years.  This year though, I opted to step down as the head coach and just be the assistant.  It's too hard coaching both teams and this was a better alternative for me.  I'm still able to be involved in the training and development of the kids.  We made it to the final but lost a tough game.  We had no subs and had some injuries and it was pretty darn hot.  Jordan scored a goal in the first game we played on Friday and had a great time playing. 

Jordan's U15 Storm Black Team, 2nd place 

Serious Bad Luck

I just have to blog about this because I'm still so mad about it.  About a month ago, I bought for the first time ever, a side of beef and a side of a pig.   The animals were farmed raised by some 4H kids and it was a pretty good price, although the down side is you pay all at once for the meat instead of buying it as you need but it still is cheaper to do it this way (so the butcher told me).   Well..........I picked it up about a month ago and we'd used a little of it but when we were on vacation, somehow my freezer in the garage stopped working.  We can't figure out if it got left open a crack and melted or if something happened when the lightning storm came thru and the power was out?  All I know is that I will be throwing $1500 of meat in the garbage on Thursday.  Now the freezer if freezing again so I just left it all in there as I don't think anyone wants to smell the rotten stuff until Thursday when the garbage man comes!  I'm just sick about it.   There has been a bear hanging out around our house.....wonder if he could smell the meat?   Scary thought huh! 

Okay, so that's not all........today, I was working in the yard and I decided to dig up a rock that was in a weird place.  We have tons of rocks in our yard.  You might see the surface on a rock and think its a little one, so you start to dig it up to get rid of it and the next thing you know, it's a 3Man rock that is a serious boulder, moveable by only a tractor, unless your muscle woman, which I am not!  So, I got Britton to help me and he said if we used the pick axe, it would be easier.  He starts picking away at the thing and the next thing I know, there is water spurting out of the hole!  He had hit one of the sprinkler lines!  I had to run and turn off the water.  I don't think Craig is too happy about that one since he'll be the one who has to fix it!  About half hour after that, Jordan was digging up another huge boulder and there were actually two side by side.  When he tried to move the smaller one, it slipped and smashed his fingers between the big one and the smaller one.  His fingernail was instantly bruised on one finger and the other two fingers were smashed.  I felt so bad for him!

Here's another one.....the day before we left for Florida, I got rear ended in my Yukon on 272nd. Now mind you, it wasn't that big of a deal with the exception that 2 months ago, I was on hwy 169 and got rear ended in the Yukon.  I had just gotten it back from the repair shop not even a month ago.  I also got rear ended last summer on hwy 18 but that was in my honda.  I don't think I can take another rear ending!!  All three times I was on my way to soccer practice or games.  The last rear ending, the girl who hit me was on her way to soccer practice!  Maybe I need to take a break from driving to soccer so much.  Apparently, it's not safe!  No one was hurt in any of them though and the damage is minor, it's just the pain of dealing with the repairs, insurance......

To top it off, Britton is having is second hernia surgery tomorrow!  He had one on the right side last fall and had to have surgery.  Then about a month ago, he said his other side was hurting and I just had a gut feeling that he had another one.  Sure enough, we went back to the surgeon and he said, Yep, he's got another one on the left side.  Apparently he was born with them and that if you have one on one side, you have a 50% chance of having one on the other side.  I'm not a doctor of course, but if they knew that, why didn't they poke around and look at the other side while they were in there last fall?  Now he has to miss a lot of important things he had planned for the summer plus, we get to pay all the medical deductibles again!  Uuugh, I must be thinking negative thoughts or something (law of attraction) since I keep having these unfortunate things happen!!

Well, the good news is that Craig got a fortune cookie today that said  "the investments you make today will pay off in the future".  Well, since we are about to embark on buying a new building, equipment, office, etc for his dental practice (a serious investment!) that was at least a nice thing to read!

Okay, I know this is not that bad, I really truly am grateful for all my blessings.  Glad that my child who does have medical issues can get treated safely, cars are replaceable, fingers, well, I guess they can be reattached had he lost them (I'm terrible!) and I can always buy another dang cow and pig.  At least we have enough to eat right.  I just think of Uganda when I'm feeling like I've got it so bad!  That changes my perspective and sets me straight!

Thanks to blogging, I can vent to the keyboard (and those who dare to read this dorky post)and by the end of the post, I've counted my blessings and come full circle!  Who needs a therapist?  Blogging is free!

Orlando Florida Vacation 2008

We took our family vacation to Orldando, Florida.  We thought it was about time we did the Disney thing before our kids got too big!  Disneyworld was a bit of a disappointment but Universal Studios was a hit and so were the great beaches.  The first week we stayed at the Orange Lake Resort in Kissimmee and then we spent the rest of our time at the Hilton Seaworld Resort.  We did so many things while there that I'm having a hard time remembering it all!  We went to Clearwater Beach, Daytona Beach, Disneyworld MGM, Universal Studios, golfing, swimming,  putt putt golf, Disney Interactive, rented a boat on Orange Lake and relaxed at the pool and lazy river.  The only complaint was that it was so HOT and humid!  We are not conditioned for that kind of weather here in the northwest!  We had a great time and enjoyed the break from our busy lives.    Here are some photos of the trip.

Britton and Jordan being difficult about smiling for the camera (what's new)!  They say most of the photos I take are of Maddy.  Well, that is true because she is the only one that will actually let me take a photo of her and not be difficult.  The next photo I took after this one (I didn't post it) is of Jordan doing the same thing with his mouth as Britton is in this one and Britton laughing!  I can't win!

Maddy, Craig, and Cameron in the pool at the Hilton.  Cool waterfall!

Miss Maddy swimming.  

Britton and Jordan at Dayton Beach on the 4th of July.  There were races going on at the Daytona Speedway and they wanted so badly to get tickets and go in.  We weren't feeling that spontaneous though and all they got to do was hear the race cars from the outside!

Cameron and Maddy playing in the sand at Daytona Beach.

Maddy and her Daddy at the Hard Rock Cafe, Orlando.  Biggest Hard Rock in the world!  It was huge!  We were so tired after our long day at Universal Studios.

Craig and Jordan having a father-son moment.  I know Jordan loved getting a big kiss from Dad!

Maddy at the kids play area at Universal Studios.

Family photo outside Disneyworld MGM/Hollywood.  It was so hot and humid.  The lines were so long!  I guess I should have taken an after photo because not long after this we were wondering why we had spent the money on Disneyworld!  The stunt show was pretty cool so I guess that made up for some of it but poor Maddy was close to heat exhaustion.  She doesn't do well in the heat!  We had a great time as a family and are bummed we have to come home and go back to real life.