Mother's Day, May Family Birthdays, and Remy's Grad Party

What a lucky mom I am to have such wonderful children and a loving husband. We had a lovely Mother's Day breakfast of Daddy's Best Bagels out on the patio.

 Charlotte choreographed and wrote a special song for the occasion. We also took my mom to the Shorecrest musical and topped off the day with Thai food on the boat out on the lake. Perfect!!!

 

Yesterday we celebrated the May birthdays of the family at Anthony's in Everett. Kathie was turning 70, so it was an extra special occasion for her and we were joined by her friend, Anne, too. 

  

I was invited to my first "college graduate" graduation party for Remy Dang. She is an amazing young woman now, graduated from Gonzaga and heading to work for Boeing in a big systems job in Southern California. At least I got to say "I knew her when..." She was a freshmen class senator in my first ever leadership class back in 2010. She believed in me and I believed in her and we brought servant leadership to Shorecrest and had a lot of fun amidst all the hard work!

 I also got to see a bunch of members from 2014 at the party, including Amanda Olegario, another leadership alum and former class senator. These are remarkable women and I am so proud of their achievements and their grounded and kind personalities.

Curling with Book Club!

Amy is in the Granite Curling Club and organized a phenomenal night of learning to curl and actual curling competition for our book club and hubbies on Saturday of Mother's Day weekend. I love that this group of gals has no shame in looking silly and trying something new and potentially embarrassing. Here are a few of us before taking the ice. Note the curling brooms and the rubber grippers on our shoes.

 

Yours truly trying it out - you have to lunge forward from something like track blocks to propel yourself forward. You put a slider footprint under your forward foot and you brace one hand on a handle and one on the rock. You get momentum going by sliding back and forth a few times and then push and go for it - at a certain point, extending your right arm and sliding the rock to the other end of the sheet and hopefully into the bullseye. On the first try I did a slow motion fall to my left after losing balance. It takes a remarkable amount of core strength to stay balanced.

 I also learned how to sweep for others on my team.

 

We split the time on the ice with women going first while the men watched from above. (Not intimidating at all...)

 

Some were focused on other pursuits. 

 Eben picked it up quickly, of course.

It was an unexpected and delightful evening in the presence of fine company! I wonder what we'll learn next!

MAY - Rafting and Exploring the Ridge

It is wonderful to have nice weather again, especially with a backyard that looks great this time of year. This is a light sabre move I've never seen before in the movies....

 We got out to the cabin to do a rafting weekend. My mom came, too, in order to watch the kids while Eben and I took Chris out on the main section of the Wenatchee and taught him how to guide. We also lucked out and had his brother in law, Dan, in the boat, too, and super high water! The waves were up to 14' high from trough to crest and it was a thrilling ride.

 After doing two runs on the river, we came back to the cabin and decided to try to drive up the ridge to the Sugarloaf Mountain fire look out. However, as the snow was just melting, there had really only been motorbikes up there so far this year. We came across this log on the way up. Luckily, with a little hard work, we were able to pry it at one end enough to move it and get by. Little did we know there was more of the same up ahead (and also deep patches of snow) so we ended up having to turn around. But - we were rewarded with some stellar views down to Lake Wenatchee and Fish Lake nonetheless.

 

 On Sunday we took the kids rafting on the upper section of the Wenatchee and were joined again by Dan and also his wife Shannon. Chris guided the whole way and Eben and I pronounced him a graduate of our river guiding training.

Spring Break - Days 10 and 11: Benicia and Sacramento

We drove the six hours or so from Laguna Beach all the way up to Benicia (in the Bay Area) on Saturday. The kids watched a few movies in the back seat while Eben drove and I worked on the blog and looked out the window and marveled at all the orchards and cows. Benicia was a cute little town and one that Eben spent a lot of weeks working in while the Polar Star was in dry dock at Mare Island Ship Yard. We were lucky to be able to meet up with my former colleague, Sara Clarke, from Shorecrest, that afternoon. She lives in the area and was able to stop by our hotel. We chatted while the kids played in the pool. It was so wonderful to catch up and she has created a really great life for her and her two boys: Oliver and Charlie. I'm so proud of her and the fact that she is a super capable Assistant Principal. After seeing Sara, we had a yummy Thai food dinner followed by Saturday night black light bowling at Travis Air Force Base. That was quite an experience for sure. The kids loved it.

 

Sunday morning the kids and I were all set to fly home to Seattle. On our way to the airport, we were able to meet up with Steve Casey and his daughter Liv who were in the area for a soccer game (their home base is up in Truckee). Steve and Eben went to the Coast Guard Academy together. Steve is now running his own construction company and he really enjoys it. Liv is a soccer and cross country phenom in middle school! Crazy! It was really great to see them both again and catch up.

After that, the kids and I returned to Seattle, did a ton of laundry, and got ready to return to the normal routine. Eben stayed in the Bay Area for work for a few days before driving back to Seattle later in the week. The trip was a whirlwind, but we are so thankful we were able to spend this time with our children and have these great adventures and experiences!