The Grand

I'm not sure I can even explain how much I loved our 16 days rafting the Grand Canyon, but I'm going to try.

I loved the boats.

 

I loved rigging them, and strapping things down. "Rigging to flip" means that you should be able to turn the boat upside down and shake it and nothing would fall off. I loved carrying everything we needed on them, rigged to flip. I loved the feel of pushing off for the day with adventure ahead. I loved balancing with my bare feet on the side tubes as I got ready to jump off and tie us up when we came into camp.  I loved the look of them, headed through the canyon, peaceful but exciting all at the same time. One night I even slept on the boat, and it was good.

I loved the water.

Stockdolager Rapid

I loved hearing it constantly, day and night. One evening I waited until the full moon rose then found a place to strip down and wash my hair. Cold water, warm air, full moon...it was exquisite. Most of the time there was a current but the water was smooth. But on big rapid days you would hear the roar, sometimes from 1-2 miles ahead, and the anticipation would start to build. When we were just above the whitewater we'd pull over and climb up to scout the best line. Serious, serious discussions would take place because this water was big enough to flip a boat and that's a disaster. I loved the discussions, because...

I love the lingo. Where you or I might just see a bunch of water, real river runners see ledge holes, keeper holes, lateral waves, sleeper rocks, hydraulics, eddies, circulating eddies, eddy lines, haystacks, v-waves, bubble lines, strainers, pour overs, and flip rocks. There are tongues and chutes, rock gardens and cheese graters. A typical analysis of a rapid might go like this: "I'm going to ride the bubble line down the tongue right of that ledge hole, bow pivot to T up with those laterals, pull hard through the right side of that V wave and then hope I can stay off that cheese grater into the haystacks at the bottom. If not we could get maytagged and there might be a fire sale." I would squint at the river and nod. I loved squinting and nodding.

Here is a video of running Lava rapid, "the most intense 8 seconds of water in the Grand Canyon." It's not us in the video, but I was sitting where the camera is, so it brings back great memories, although I couldn't have told you what was going on.


I loved the river, but I also loved the side canyons.

Silver Grotto in Shinumo Wash

When I heard we'd be hiking every day, my heart sunk. Grand Canyon hiking sounded miserable- hot and steep and exposed. I had no idea about the little slot side canyons. Oooh...when you say 'hiking,' what you actually mean is swimming through narrow pools and scrambling up waterfalls! That's the best kind of hiking in the world! Besides, it's a great team building exercise, and...

I loved the group dynamics of the whole thing:

Helping Joann make the climb.

My first impression of the group was a couple of kids, some Outside magazine poster boys, some old people, and us. But the old people free solo climbed 50ft waterfalls and took the inflatable kayak through Class IX rapids, not to mention that Joann (as pictured above) was the best boatman on the trip. The poster boys and the kids turned out to be mellow and hilarious, and by day 2-3 we were tight. After 16 days of isolation and adventure and inside jokes they seemed like the whole world to me.

But now that I remember the rest of you, it seems like the only way this trip could have been better would be to have you guys on it. River trip, anyone?

This is why some kids think their parents are idiots-

This morning, I was getting ready for work, and Hal was playing in the front room.

As I walked by the door, I saw him moving his hand around, making the sound of a train whistle-

Hal- "Whoo-whooooo!"

Me- "Oh, is that a train?"

Hal- "No, it's my hand."

Oh. Right.

Summer 2015

lets go.. get this stuff down!

1. Carrie throwing the Frisbee for an hour to boys at grandpa's pool
2. "Who invented 'taking turns' anyway..?" - Levi
3.  blindfolded pool noodle fight - carrie and vivian
4.  Claire (and other peanut gallery) coaching Rachel on her "mean face".
5.  RAIN at cousins camp
6 "BETH!  It's happening AGAIN! " - Theo requesting help with his nasty nose
7. Eric heroically finding Darcy's lost flipper in the ocean
8, huge art project - "Pull!"
9. crazy foosball action
10.  great lightning storm and running to get bedding off the trampoline in the rain
11.  Greek myth story told by Lucy with lightning in the background
12.  Rachel VS Carrie spanish-ice cream fight
13. Hugo's walking skills
14. "When I die, I want this car on my gravestone, with the inscription 'Crappy Car' carved under it" - Levi, holding up the car he tried all day to trade away, walking home from the cemetery.
15. Staying up late at Cousins Camp discussing hospitality and quirks.
16. Kids digging tunnel in beach sand
17. "Free sand!?!"
18. Gwen- "You are making a really horrible mistake!" (forcing her into Sarah's car after the museum)
19. Froot Loops flavored potato chips (along with chicken satay, basil)
20. Levi dancing during Busking Day
21. Watching Brad be a dad.
22. Nighttime flashlight adventures with Vivian, Claire, Sarah, Rachel, Gordon and Mom.
23. capture the flag game with rachel, beth/kids, and theo
24. grandma/eric/lucy lunch date
25. lucy bursting into tears when lawrence kids start to talk/wish they were moving
26. jerry's frog talk
27. crazy airbnb camp site with giant yurt, teepee, drum set in awesome granite creek, and neighbors intent on criminal harm with wicked nails. Using kids as minesweepers. Carrie pouring melted butter from the paper grocery bag. Shake-shake-shaking punctured can to eke out tomato soup on our ration of canned beans and bacon.
28. You mean all these books are FREE?!?
29. Teaching the kids how to shoot with dad's scoped pellet gun. Eric hitting a match, Carrie exploding the glass jar for the grand finale.
30. Hal's pronunciation of 'dumptruck'.
31. Beth leaping out of bed at 5:30am to chase a squawking rooster around, catch it, consider killing it but instead stuffing it in a cat carrier in the garage, all so Rachel can get a couple more hours sleep in the backyard.
32. Sending the Gregory kids off on an unaccompanied minor flight
33. Levi's birthday at Skywalk
34. Baptisms at the temple with Mom, Sarah, Rachel, Sydney, Eric
35. Sydney and Eric getting doused by giant wave at Morro Strand. Sydney getting within 10 ft of an otter
36. Theo and Jack eating spicy food at Beth's until Jack eats a red ant and gets bitten on the tongue.
37. Mark Porter's wedding reception- Bry jumps out of a cake
38. Sarah and Lucy go to One Direction concert
39. Levi and Theo get unsupervised playtime, use it to tag carport with spray paint. Viv's head explodes.
40. Dad pays Eric $4 to climb through hole in fence, move dead possum further into neighbor's yard.

circa 2012

2015

A year in the life

We made it.  We all made it to 1 year old.  Hugo is 1 year old!

Police Car!

Last night, after a spate of Hal stalling going to bed (asking for water, or more blankets), he'd finally quieted down, and I thought we were good for the night. 25 minutes later I heard him come to the door.

I marched back there, already yelling, "Get back in bed, Hal! Go to sleep!"

When I entered his room to ask what was going on, he said, "Police car!"

A bit of background: recently he's been going to bed with a dump truck, a crane, a red car, an orange car, sometimes a plane, and yes, a police car.

"No!" I said. "You don't need your police car."
"Police car!"
"It's probably already here in your bed! Go to sleep!"
"Police car!"
"Hal, close your eyes, hold still and go to sleep. You shouldn't be playing anyway"

 Finally, he just grabbed my hand, and moved it to his thigh....where I could feel his police car, trapped inside his pajama pants. After I stopped laughing, I reached up through the tight ankle part of his pants and moved the police car out of there.

He went to sleep shortly after.

Carrie, we rember you!

If we did make you a cake this year (which we didn't) it would probably look like this:

"Man, that was awesome..."

Theo had his school sleepover last night. Haven't you always wanted to go to sleep on the floor of your classroom?