Ben had his first day of first grade last week. He was so ready! Going into his first day, he knew about half of the kids in his class, and that included several of his really good friends.
I expected his first week back to be a little rocky, to be honest, and I’m really happy to report I was quite mistaken. It was super smooth! He’s off to a great start!
School for Hannah will be a little different this year. She’s going to the same school, but it’s a different program with different teachers and a totally different location. Her school will be 100% outside – the mornings will be a mix of preschoolers plus 5 and 6-year olds. At lunchtime, the little kiddos go home and then Hannah and the older kids stay for a more big-kid focused afternoon time.
It’s going to be a little tricky for the first month with her broken leg. I’m overjoyed to report that the transition is going SO smoothly and that her teachers are making incredible accommodations for her to ensure she is included and able to participate. She is really enjoying her new program and loves the afternoons with the big kids!
After years of dreaming about getting out into The Enchantments, Alex and I finally checked it off the list! The Enchantments are a protected area in the Alpine Lakes Wilderness in Washington state. We’ve been planning and training for the thru-run for the last year and we were finally able to make it happen.
There are a few ways you can get into The Enchantments and none of them are easy. We opted to do the thru-run. The thru-run {or hike} is done in one day. The only other way to see all of the Enchantments is to win the lottery for a backpacking permit to camp, or do an out-and-back hike in one day.
The route we took was 20 miles with 5500+ feet of elevation gain and 7200 feet of elevation loss. This includes climbing up the notorious Aasgard Pass, which is basically a rocky minefield. I expected that Aasgard Pass would be challenging. It was brutal.
We started at the Stuart Lake Trailhead at 5:40 a.m. and made our way up to Colchuck Lake quickly. We’ve run to Colchuck before, so we knew what to expect for that segment of the run.
Once we got to Colchuck we were in uncharted territory – we had never gone further than the first iconic lake and we were almost to Aasgard Pass.
Thank heavens we were able to make it to the top of Aasgard Pass before the sun rose up that high so we could remain in the shade.
Alex loved the rocky scramble up the famed pass. I, on the other hand, did not. Sure, it felt very victorious making it up to the top, but it was grueling and trashed my hip flexors. There is just no easy way up. Not even close.
We saw a mama mountain goat and her baby! {They blend into the granite in the photo below – can you spot them?}
Once we summited Aasgard Pass we reached the gateway to the core of The Enchantments!
It felt as though we had climbed up a mountain pass and landed on another planet. It truly felt other-worldly.
The sheer beauty and the magnitude and the incredible uniqueness of the terrain and landscape are breathtaking and absolutely magnificent.
Once we were in the core, which is what everyone comes for, it was all relatively downhill or flat-ish. We followed the carins {little rock piles that mark the trail} and did our best to take it all in.
I love being up in the alpine. It was so worth the climb up Aasgard to be able to admire the calm beauty of the alpine lakes and the craggy mountains and the twisty, Dr Seuss-like larch trees.
Through The Enchantment core we passed several main lakes, each one as pristine and aquamarine as the last. We stopped a lot to refill water bottles as the temperature rose, and we managed to eat on-the-go. And of course we took all the pictures. Still, though, our mission that day was speed, for no other reason than we knew it was going to be extremely hot!
Alex took a dip in Snow Lake, which was the final lake, and we both fully refilled our water bottles, knowing we had a bit to go before the end.
The final descent to the car was both easier and harder than I expected. It was a really gradual loss of 7200 feet and it was runnable almost the entire way. We were planning for 18 miles and it ended up being 20 miles and also 102 degrees, almost fully sun exposed. It felt like it took forever. But, we did it!! It took us 6.5 hours of moving time and just over 8 hours of actual elapsed time.
I have a feeling we will be back one day to do it again one day! Hopefully our kids will join us at some point, too 🙂 Here’s to our next adventure!
One of my personal joys of this summer has been our family garden. Last summer we Alex put in all the hard work to create the garden beds, install irrigation and build a fence to keep out the critters. This summer, we got to relish in amending the soil and planting our starts. The hardest part was constructing the trellising systems.
We learned quite a lot last year. One of our biggest lessons was to plant things we love to eat and focus our energy there. So, that’s exactly what we did. I planted a larger crop of tomatoes, tons of green beans, more pumpkins {for fun, not food}, and added lettuce and cucumbers to the mix.
Last summer we started with eight strawberry plants. Since then, they have spread so, so much and produced pint after pint of juicy berries early in the summer. Now that we’re to August the berries have relinquished quite a bit, but we’ve been delighted to notice they’re making quite the resurgence lately.
I spent some time amending the soil in our two garden boxes before planting our flowers this spring and we’re really reaping the rewards. One of the flower boxes is filled with flowers that attract pollinators, like bee balm. The kids love to say hello to our bee friends! We have zinnias galore, wispy cosmos and dwarf sunflowers that brighten everything up.
My most favorite part of the garden is going out together as a family and watching the kids enjoy the space, notice the growth, talk to the plants and harvest them. The absolute best, though, was Ben falling in love with the strawberries this summer.
We’re loving the bounty of this incredible experiment!
Hannah has always seemed to act her age or even older, so it feels so natural that she’s five. Her birthday was a couple weeks ago and we had the best time celebrating our tenacious girl.
Hannah’s five year stats:
Weight: 41 pounds
Height: 42″
Clothing size: mostly 4/5 but really starting to outgrow it!
Least favorite foods: beef, chicken, most vegetables, anything I serve for dinner
Favorite things/activities: playing with her babies or dollhouse, watching her iPad, reading books, playing outside, running, dancing, riding her bike, painting, baking
Least favorite things/activities: waiting, stopping doing something fun, leaving somewhere, not getting what she wants
Ever since Hannah was about two, maybe even a little younger, she has shown such an innate nurturing side to her. One of her favorite things to play is with her babies – she loves the Wellie Wishers dolls from American Girl Doll. She also loves her doll house, her adorable little mice, and any object or item that she can turn into a character or family.
More recently it has been so special to see Hannah’s imagination and creativity blossom. She’s always been imaginative and creative, but there’s a new maturity to both. We’ve been learning that she loves to create stories in her mind. She also loves to paint and her artistic skills are becoming more refined and a little less abstract.
Hannah’s personality is just so fun. She is so silly, nurturing, sweet, matter-of-fact and genuine. She is so good at playing and imagining and pretending. She tells you how it is and knows what she wants {and doesn’t want!}.
She has so many wonderful qualities that will benefit her tremendously as an adult {many are a liiiittle challenging as a parent!}… she is tenacious, she knows what she wants, she is incredibly persistent and strong-willed, she is brave and curious, she loves to learn, she is a tremendous problem solver and she does things on her own time.
Recently, a teacher suggested she’s quite like an owl – a quiet, thoughtful observer watching in the shadows, waiting to make its move.
Hannah absolutely loves her family, her routine, familiar people and places, and her home. It can take Hannah a while to warm up to new people and she is often very, very quiet until she is ready to jump in. Similarly, in new situations, it typically takes her a while to feel comfortable. During the school year she really appreciates having her Friday “mama-Hannah days” where we relax, recharge and spend the day together.
One of my favorite things about this last year with Hannah is watching so many things click and fall into place. Hannah truly does things when she is ready – good luck to you if you try to push her before that point.
With skiing and swimming this last year she put the pieces together and last winter became a much more independent and absolutely fun, beautiful skier. This summer, just within the last few weeks, she became comfortable enough to put her face in the water and that has now lead to cannonballs, somersaults under water, diving for rings in the deep end and an absolutely gorgeous crawl stroke.
Hannah played “kinderkicks” soccer last summer, just after turning 4, and joined in a little tiny bit, but mostly wasn’t ready. This fall she says she’s ready to get out there and join in on a soccer team, and that she wants to join the Nordic ski team this winter and play t-ball in the spring. Mid-way through the last year Hannah was able to begin ballet class, which she loved probably more than anything. She participated immediately. And she did the recital!
During the last school year Hannah made some lovely friendships. Previously, she was more of an observer at school, and this year she really got into the mix. She has a few very good friends and certainly knows who she likes and who she doesn’t like. In just a few weeks she will start her new school program where she’ll be in a class with mostly new kiddos, but her best friend will be joining her. She is soooo excited for her new program, which will be 100% outdoors, with most of the time spent hiking and exploring down by the river.
It feels like we’re at a really exciting point with Hannah. Five is such a big age and so many things are coming together with her. We’re really looking forward to this next year with Hannah!
Our second home this summer seems to be water – anywhere we can find it!
We’ve basically been living at the Leavenworth Community Pool, which is absolutely amazing. We continue to be incredibly grateful for the outdoor pool and the wonderful, attentive lifeguards who keep us safe.
The kids have been taking swimming lessons all summer and have progressed in ways I didn’t even imagine were possible at this point. Ben has become an absolutely beautiful and strong swimmer. Next summer he will be joining the local swim team. Hannah has put all the skills she’s been working on for the last year into practice and she’s finally swimming on her own. Both kids can do an impressive cannonball!
In addition to the pool, we’ve been swimming in the river and our local lake, Lake Wenatchee. The level and swiftness of the river subsided rather quickly this summer and it’s made for a lot of fun in the local swimming holes.
One of the summer highlights was going to Slidewaters, a water park in Chelan. The kids loooveeddd it.
One of our goals this summer was to simply enjoy it. I think we’re nailing it.
We kicked off summer vacation this year with a big camping road trip down the Oregon Coast to Redwood National Park. The trip was filled with making memories, s’mores every day, chilly weather, exploring, a tremendous amount of work and planning, as well as the gorgeous surroundings one would expect.
The first day of our road trip we made it all the way down to the central part of the Oregon Coast. We stayed at South Beach State Park in Newport, Oregon. The drive down the coast was really fun – we stopped for the best iced Americano we’ve ever had in Astoria, conveniently located 1 block from The Goonies and Kindergarten Cop houses.
Tillamook, Oregon is home to Tillamook Creamery, so naturally we stopped there for ice cream, cheese curds, mac & cheese and the little amazing cheese square snacks they make.
Our first two nights of camping were overall really great. I had an incredible night sleep the first night {then it went slowly downhill from there} and the kids absolutely love camping, so it was fun to see them experience it again. Of course there are challenges when you combine children and camping, but they were outweighed by the fun we had.
We loved exploring the beach, which was adjacent to the campground! It was not at all warm but it sure was beautiful.
The biggest highlight of the trip took place on our drive down to Redwood National Park. We stopped at the Oregon Sand Dunes {specifically the John Dellenbeck trailhead} and it turned out to be one of the most unique, FUN and incredible experiences I think any of us has ever had. It was an absolute blast!
The sand dunes went on seemingly forever! It was like nothing we’d ever seen before.
Our southmost destination was Redwood National Park – we stayed in the northern portion of the park at Del Norte Coast campground. It was completely opposite from our campground in Oregon – we were surrounded by massive trees and our campsite was private, teeny tiny and tucked up into some bushes.
We spent a full day exploring the park. We drove through Howland Hill Road and ended up doing most of the Boy Scout Tree trail. Our day ended the day at Endert Beach, which was another highlight of the trip.
After our day in the Redwoods we opted to cut our trip a little short. We were all tired of being perpetually cold {it was 55 and windy the whole time} and were all ready to get home. So, we decided to high tail it home, bypass our Hood River campground and do the whole drive in one really long stretch.
Our drive home was just fine – we stopped at In ‘N Out Burger, a fantastic park in Portland, a donut shop in Portland and then made a beeline for our house, which we made it to just before the sun set. It was so good to be home.
All in all, it was a really lovely trip. We had some wonderful family time, made a boatload of memories, had new experiences and explored new places. We learned a lot about travel and what we want and don’t want {hint: we’d like a beach vacation where it is actually WARM!}. We’re happy to be home for the rest of the summer now.
Now that it’s almost time to go back to school, I’m playing catch up! And I’d like to present to you our Kindergarten graduate! Ben’s school did the sweetest graduation for all of the kindergarteners. It was so special.
It’s amazing how much he’s changed in the two months since his last day of Kindergarten. I’m really looking forward to his upcoming year as a first grader!
Ben is really, really growing up! It feels like seven is such a turning point for a kiddo to transition from a little kid to a big kid. Gosh, he is getting so big and has become so capable. It’s been suuuuch a fun year with Ben!
Ben’s stats:
Weight: around 46 pounds
Height: about 49 inches
Clothing size: kids small (6/7)
Shoe size: kids 13
Number of teeth lost: 2!!
Favorite foods: crackers, pizza from school lunch, tacos, mac & cheese from The Old Mill
Favorite activities: playing outside, climbing, running, riding his bike, doing art projects, skiing, spending time with friends/family, jumping on the trampoline
Ben’s personality is certainly evolving as he gets a bit older. He is wildly inquisitive and curious – the depth of his inquisitions is honestly a bit mind boggling, as are the connections he makes. He is incredibly thoughtful and caring, so friendly, confident yet cautious, loving, cuddly and just so funny.
Ben has always been extremely independent. He really appreciates being able to do all the things for himself and on his own, and he also likes to make his own decisions. He craves autonomy in every way imaginable.
Ever since Ben was in utero he just didn’t stop moving. That continues to hold true for the most part. Ben is incredibly active and has impressive endurance. That said, if he’s interested in creating something or working on a project, he’s content to be still and focused.
This year Ben was on the Nordic ski team and played soccer in the spring. He took Spanish and swimming lessons in the fall. He’s certainly starting to refine what he loves and doesn’t really enjoy. I’m quite curious what this next year will look like for him in terms of the activities he chooses to pursue.
Some of my core memories of Ben are watching him ride his bike at the Leavenworth pump track – even as early as a two-year old. He is an impressive and confident biker. He has some remarkable goals on his mountain bike this summer.
Skiing with Ben is a sheer delight, I think for anyone. He is so much fun to ski with. If you can keep up with him, that is. He loves ducking off into the trees, finding the wildest bump sections to cruise through. It is simply a blast skiing with him.
Ben and his sister are the very best of friends. Sure, they argue and fight like siblings, but their love for each other gives me all the warm fuzzies. One of my absolute favorite things is to watch the two of them play pretend together.
Ben is at the tail end of his second year in kindergarten. We are SO happy with our decision to have him move into the school in town and begin with kindergarten. He is learning things that he wasn’t taught last year and his reading and writing foundation is incredibly solid now. He’s made some really lovely friends and he got to have another year where play was a part of the school day. He’s almost a first grader!
It sure seems like we have a lot of big kid changes on the horizon. I am really, really enjoying this phase of life with Ben and am also really looking forward to seeing how he continues to grow and change. What a guy he is!
Our spring is flying by this year, and gosh it’s been a nice one! The transition from winter to spring was very slow – it took quite a while for the snow to melt and for it to really warm up. For the last three or four weeks we’ve been enjoying the absolute best spring weather!
The wildflowers this spring have been absolutely spectacular this spring. The hillsides are exploding with bright yellow balsamroot and purple lupine. I’ve started to see the orangey red Indian paintbrush popping up here and there, too.
We’ve been getting out to hike, run and ride bikes as often as possible to enjoy the wildflowers and sunshine.
Ben has been playing soccer this spring, though his season has already wrapped up. As with every soccer season he’s progressed tremendously from the start to the end. It seems like he’s enjoyed this season and probably made the greatest transformation. He scored his first goal ever during his last game! It was an absolutely incredible shot and I really hope I always remember that moment. It was a big one.
Hannah started doing ballet in January and absolutely loves it. Her recital is coming up tomorrow!
Alex has been getting out on weekly trail runs with the local trail running group. They’ve covered a lot of ground so far – this was a major highlight of his summer last year and I have a feeling that will be the case this year, too. He has also been mountain biking regularly and has been loving riding with friends and exploring new trails.
So far I’ve only gotten out on my mountain bike once, but have been hiking or running most days. It’s been so fun getting out exploring. It’s even better when Alex or a friend joins me.
We’re days away from planting the garden, though with the warm spring we’ve had, it seems we could have put everything in the ground several weeks ago. You just never know! Our strawberries are bursting with flowers – I am so excited to see how much they produce in their second year.
Our property is just over three acres, so there is a lot to do to maintain it year-round. We always have a very long spring clean-up list, and this year was no different. We’ve made really terrific progress, though it seems like there will always be projects. My car survived the long winter and mud season and has been staying pretty clean, thanks to regular maintenance touch-ups.
The grandparent parade has begun! My mom came for a visit a few weeks ago and she brought the gorgeous weather with her. We enjoyed a lot of time outside together.
Alex’s parents arrived recently and are spending several weeks with us this spring. My dad will come visit next month, as well. The kids are loving having grandparents here! It’s been so fun.
We are rounding the corner real fast towards the last day of school and a big birthday for Ben! We have so much to look forward to as we make the transition from spring to summer. More to come soon!
You’ll have to excuse me from a two-plus month hiatus from blogging. Really, I’m not sure what I would have written about, aside from skiing, since that seems to be all we did this winter. And goodness was it fun!
Our winter started early this year – November 3rd, to be exact. We got our first snowfall that day and the Nordic trails opened just a few days later. The cards were stacked in my favor this year – it turned out I picked the right winter to embark on the challenge of skiing 100 days.
The beginning of winter is my absolute favorite time of the year. There is so much excitement and anticipation of snow, skiing, Christmas and all the joy that comes with the holidays.
This holiday season was no exception. We had such a snowy December and the kids are at such fun ages to really get into the Christmas spirit. It felt extra special.
Alex’s family came to join us a few days after Christmas. Ben and Hannah had the best time playing with their cousins. It is such a treasured relationship.
Alex’s parents stayed with us for most of the month of January. It was so fun having them for an extended period of time, and watching them get acquainted with winter in the mountains.
The prime winter days were largely spent skiing, unsurprisingly.
Ben participated in the local Nordic team again and absolutely loved his experience. He leaned into his competitive side during his first Nordic races – he did the 1K in both races.
A really fun non-skiing highlight of the winter was Ben *finally* losing his first tooth! He’s been eagerly awaiting that moment for years now. I wasn’t sure Ben could be any cuter, but it turns out, he is even more adorable with his little toothless smile. His first tooth came out the night before Valentine’s day, followed by the second one two weeks later.
Just after Christmas Hannah started ballet. She absolutely LOVES it.
Hannah’s downhill skiing ability took off in leaps and bounds this winter. She started the season completely unwilling to ski on her own and finished it as an independent skier, capable of skiing most blues at Stevens Pass, our local resort.
I had no idea how much fun you can have skiing with your children, but it turns out it’s one of the best parts of parenthood, at least in my experience. Both Ben and Hannah are just so much fun to ski with.
Hannah dances down the mountain and you can tell by looking at her that she’s having a blast. Ben is a completely different skier – he is so focused and so unbelievably fast. I really have to work hard to keep up! But he loves to check out new lines, find the best jumps and cruise through the trees.
Alex started a new job just before Christmas and he’s been hard at work during the day, which has left us little time to ski together this year. I’m holding out hope for next winter! We did manage to sneak in a few Nordic laps at lunch and one alpine day when the kids were in ski school.
Of my 100+ days, many of the weekday ski hurrahs were on my own. I really leaned into Nordic skiing, partly because I absolutely love it, and partly due to the convenience.
One of my favorite ski days of the whole season was the first time I took Brooks with me to the See ‘n Ski trail sort of near our house. I’m not sure exactly what made it so fun – was it Brooks? Or the variability in the trail? The sunshine? All of the above?
The kids had the week of Presidents’ Day off of school, so we made it an adventure week! It was a blast. And exhausting! We went rock climbing, skiing, to the gymnastics gym, and we took a day trip to Seattle.
This winter was a bit fickle for our ice rink. Christmas day marked the beginning of a six+ week warm stretch filled with rain, rain and more rain. The temps dropped just after Presidents’ Day and Alex resurrected the rink! He had the best curling night and the kids invited a bunch of their friends over and ended up essentially playing broomball without even realizing it.
I’m really into “challenges” this year I guess. Another challenge I’m in the middle of is cooking my way through the Half Baked Harvest Super Simple cookbook. It is SO GOOD. I have loved this delicious challenge and it has really helped pull me out of a seriously boring food rut.
I have so many highlights from this winter it’s really hard to narrow them down to not make this an entire novel. Skiing with friends and family, silent morning coffees with a book, watching my kids grow up, trying new things, chicken fingers at the ski lodge, volunteering in the lunchroom, watching the fire, Saturday date nights at home, watching the snow fall, listening to my kids laugh, getting hugs, ice skating in our yard, nearly finishing the guesthouse, and being home. All the little things made this winter what it was. Unforgettable.
