Geocaching with Conor

Just over a week ago, Conor and I decided to go on a little date while Annika was with her robotics team at Geek Girl Con and Eric was futzing around at home. This time of year, we need to take advantage of sunny days, ya know!

Because I was still deeply embedded in surgery recovery mode, I opted for (what I thought) was a fairly benign geocache for us at Carkeek Park. Umm... I thought wrong.

We encountered some serious elevation changes and off-the-path bushwhacking along the way. It also took MUCH longer than I expected to find the geocache because the compass didn't come in very handy when it came to avoiding drastic drop-offs and thorny bushes we didn't want to walk through. (Yes, we are rather non-daring in that regard.) That said, we did discover some new parts of the park that we hadn't been to before and had some spectacular views along the way.

My geocaching buddy

Conor reading the carvings in the lookout rail

"Mama! Stop! This is a great picture place."

"I'll sit here so you can take my picture."

"Mama!! This rock is a good sitting place. My legs are tired.
And you can take my picture while I rest."

Geocaching Selfie

Look what we found!

Opening the geocache

His nautical pose???

My sweet boy

After we found our geocache, plucked a goody from the case, and added a new goody to the stash, we meandered back down the hill and wandered over to the beach. Why? Because Conor was very sweet to point out that "Water is your favorite thing to see, Mama. We should go to the beach because it makes you happy." (What a guy!) It didn't hurt that he also wanted to play in the sand and throw rocks into the water! We founds lots a rocks (a few came home in his pockets ... shocker!), played on a driftwood teeter totter, watched the wind surfers, and waved at a passing train. A good day, you betcha!!

Teeter tottering on the beach

The saddle of this log made for some neat waves

"Mama, now I'll take your picture" (photo credit: Conor)

Hanging out on the bridge over the railroad tracks

Beautiful Puget Sound and Carkeek Beach

An Evening at Carkeek

Yesterday, we had the luxury of clear weather after many recent days of rain, rain, rain, and some more rain. As I drove to the kids' school from my bus, I had an "ah ha" moment .... this would be a perfect opportunity to snap some photos of the kids for our annual Christmas card photo. So, I swooped in, nabbed the kids, high tailed it home, got their clothes changed, and out we went to Carkeek.

The kids had a marvelous time running around, climbing on the various pieces of driftwood, and spending time outside. They suffered through their mother's relentless attempts at getting a picture for the Christmas card. (Yes, I am that mean.)

I was quite surprised (although, shouldn't have been considering the weather) by how many people were at Carkeek. There were lots of families there letting their kids run and burn off energy, too. (Smart!)

The kids see Carkeek as their stomping grounds and look their "their" pieces of driftwood from the last time we were on the beach. In their typical fashion, they also moved some of the driftwood around to better suit their needs ... this time, they built a driftwood teeter totter.

Carkeek is one of my favorite places, too. The sight of the Olympics paired with the Puget Sound calms my soul and helps me feel centered.

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay too, too long because homework and dinner were needing our attention at home. That said, we did take a few minutes to stand on the railroad bridge to watch a commuter train zip by below us.

On our way out of the park, we saw something new ... red chairs of varying sizes. One of them was HUGE ... think "Incredible Shrinking Woman" huge. OF COURSE, we had to stop the car and take a look. There was a sign nearby asking for people to submit their photos to the artist, but nothing asking people to stay off of  the chairs. SO, up they went!!

Conor lending a helping hand

Annika determined to help Conor up

Jumping down from the big red chair

Mamas with Cameras 365 Challenge: Week 1

I know, I know ... I don't have nearly enough to do, right? SO, it makes perfect sense for me to take on a 365 (actually 366 because of this being a leap year) photography project. I did a 365 project about a year and a half ago and really enjoyed learning about myself as a photographer and what things inspired me.

A number of us in the Mamas with Cameras photography group have decided to band together and do a 365 photo project together. The great thing is each mama can make her own rules ... we're beholden to no one except ourselves.

I have two rules for this challenge. Rule #1: Have fun! Rule #2: Write a weekly blog post that shows the week's photos.

So, without further ado, here are my shots from Week 1.

1/365: Conor at Carkeek Beach

2/365: Annika's celebratory bowling dance

3/365: Conor is never so focused as he is when he's playing with Legos

4/365: Quilting action shot

5/365: A boy and his dog, a dog and his boy

6/365: The sentry (Carkeek Park)

7/365: Putting leftover wine to good use in my light tent

Carkeek Excursion

Today, it snowed. Naturally, I had the brilliant idea of taking the kids to the beach! Doesn't everyone equate snow with beach trip???

Our kids were in dire need to burn off some energy, and Conor asked to go to the beach while we were out a bit earlier. The idea stuck in my craw and after seeing the snow (and later, rain) taper off, I figured "Why not?" So, I packed up a few beach toys and the kids and we headed down to Carkeek for some beach fun. We are so blessed to live where we do... and have beaches so close to our house. We really don't have to plan ahead for a fun outing and if the weather doesn't cooperate, we aren't out anything if we have to cut our trip short.

As we drove to the beach, I told the kids that I didn't want them to go into the water because it was a rather cold day and I didn't bring extra clothes for them. The agreed to the one stipulation of our trip, so long as they could get water from puddles if they wanted to fill their buckets. OK, that sounded reasonable. No problem. Wow - that was easy. (Insert a "duh-duh-duh" soundtrack here.)

The kids made a bee line for the beach, happily dug in the sand, and flung the frisbee at each other (ok, moreover in the direction is happened to go, but with the general idea of aiming at the other.) Then, I noticed a seal just off shore. COOL! I tried to take some photos of it while simultaneously kicking myself for not bringing my zoom lens ... and that's when the kiddos conveniently forgot our "no going in the water" agreement. Damn that harbor seal. It sidetracked me at just the right (wrong?) time!  ;)

It amazes me how our children develop hearing loss at just the right time. For some astounding reason, they just so happened to go deaf just as I was reminding them of our agreement to stay out of the water. Go figure!!

Fortunately, their hearing returned (after me threatening to take them home RIGHT NOW), and they "decided" to play up on the sand instead of down on the rocks (and in the water). I decided they still have too much energy to burn, so I challenged them to run to the furthest driftwood log and then back to me. (This also gave me a chance to take some action shots of them running... so I really had two motives in sending them down the beach.)

Annika invented a new game today. She stuck a stick that was about 3 feet long into the sand. Then, she and Conor took turns trying to fling the frisbee onto the stick. Basically, a beach/frisbee version of horseshoes. What really struck me about this game was how encouraging the kids were with each other. There were plenty of "good try", "so close", and "you almost got it" comments. It made my mama heart very proud!

About an hour plus into the excursion, the cold started to sink in (and the lack of listening by our children was eating away at my last nerve), so we called it a day and headed home. Energy was burned, nature was observed, and fun was had. I call that a win!

Annika found a puddle to fill her bucket

Hey, kids! Remember? No water.

So glad they listen... like how Annika is further out here than in the photo above? Sheesh!

Conor digging holes in the sand to find treasure

There were quite a few birds at the beach today. The tide was out, which meant lots of shelled items for the birds to eat. They would swoop down, grab a treat, soar high up, drop the treat (in hopes the shell would crack), and then dive down to claim their food before another bird did. 

Our friend, the harbor seal

High flyin' Conor

Jumpin' Annika

Run! Kiddos! Run!!
(Our children have obviously inherited my habit/skill of sticking out
their tongues while thinking or working hard!)

Conor and Annika playing stick frisbee