8/365

I forgot to take my intended photo today. But this is an important item for me. A note has been passed around facebook to put the color bra you are wearing as your status for the day. For one, it confuses the men. For two, and more importantly: we are spreading hope and awareness for cancer, specifically breast cancer. Finding a cure is very near and dear to me.

My Mom died from Inflammatory Breast Cancer 5-1/2 years ago at the age of 54. Unlike regular breast cancer, IBC spreads very quickly and forms sheets of cancer cells. It is a rare form that few women know about, but all women should be aware of. The symptoms mimic mastitis. If I can educate even a few women in my life, I feel I am doing my share of saving a mother, sister, aunt, grandma, or daughter.

http://www.ibcresearch.org/ for more information.

1-7 of 365 photos

I think I'm all set up and ready to post my 365 photos. I will catch up with this first week of January and try my best to do it daily. Not only for myself, but for my friends and family. It's a lot harder to find that 1 photo everyday to share. So much happens in the day in the life of a Mom and busy family.


Here is my first week:

1/365 ( Fri, Jan 1st). Here's me...sitting at home. Ready to take on the new year. Happy 2010!!









           

2/365 (Sat, Jan 2nd). We visited the Everett Children's Museum for the afternoon with our family. We had to renew our annual pass and for $20 more we were able to get 7 family members in for free. It was a great deal and a lot of fun. 

Marc enjoys digging for dinosaur bones (with the kids of course).

3/365 (Sun, Jan 3rd). We are working on having family dinners to discuss our upcoming weeks. Here's our first Sunday dinner with homemade pizza. Marc used my new mixer that I got for Christmas. (uses: Marc - 3; Heather - 0).

4/365 (Mon, Jan 4th). Laundry day. Does your laundry day look like this? I need a wide angle lens to get the full scope, but I had these piles of clothes (4 days worth) to fold. First we dump it all on the floor then sort it (the kids each get a pile, our shirts, towels, our pants, kitchen towels). It's much more manageable this way. I am very happy that I have released control of putting it all away!

6/365 (Wed, Jan 6th). Miss R, my little artist. She has spent the last 3 days making paintings. We hung a few on the pantry door and I scan a couple to add to her scrapbook. She is really into flowers and rainbows and telling me that her painting means I love you!

7/365 (Thurs, Jan 7th). Miss M had 3 teeth removed on Wednesday. 2 on the top and 1 on the bottom. Next Wednesday she will have the matching 3 on the left side removed also. We are borrowing room in her mouth to let her adult teeth come in a little straighter. We go back to the orthodontist in May.

I will post my Friday picture later tonight. Thank you for being Friday (I think). It means the kids are home for the weekend and I'm still getting settled back in to them being at school all week.

Cheers!

5/365

The mill creek library is my sanctuary. I was able to read 54 books last year because of the library. I discovered new books that I loved and some I didn't even finish. Buying them all would have been more than my Starbucks spending. The kids love going to the library too. They love to go and and ask me if it's time to "pay". On occasion we find a new book for Mackenzie and Cameron to read too. Today I got 4 new books. I love putting books on hold, but I hate when they all arrive at the same time. I'm not sure I'll finish all these in 3 weeks.

Testing mobile upload

365 days, 365 photos

It's a new year. 2010. We have been busy as usual. This past year, we traveled to Redding, CA several times. In March, June and August. While in California during our August trip, we took the kids to Burney Falls, the Subway caves, Humboldt National Redwood Forest, and into Fremont for ribs at Emil Villa's. We took a few local trips including visiting Forks, WA twice to stay at the Oceanside Resort in La Push (great cabins on the beach). We went to the Olympic Rain Forest and then made a side detour on the way home to the Makah Nation and the NorthWest most point at Cape Flattery. We went camping for the first time at Lake Easton and stayed in a cabin at Hyak (near Snoqualmie Pass).

I realized we take our kids many places as well as visit many local sights and parks. I've decided to challenge myself by posting a photo for every day of 2010. Highlighting both the mundane and extraordianary things that we do. We are busy making travel plans for the upcoming year. My cousin lives on the other side of the country and we will see them before they move again. 

The current plan is to meet somewhere in the middle. I prefer to meet them somewhere warm. After a NorthWest winter, I want to see and feel the warmth of the sun. My current plan includes driving to California for my Dads wedding in March, then heading over to Santa Cruz. We will show the kids the California coast, a few sights in Los Angeles, a trip over to the Grand Canyon and a few days in Albuquerque (where we will meet up with my cousin and his family). We will then take 3 days to drive back home to Seattle. We are planning on taking 2 weeks. My other big trip will only be realized if my cousin isn't moving until end of summer. I would like to drive the kids cross country. Taking 1 week each way and spending 5-7 days with the family.

Our other possible plans include camping on the Oregon coast and a few trips over to Eastern Washington. We've lived here almost 7 years and have never been to the other half of this state. Maybe we'll be so global as to finally get our passports and head up to Canada. It takes as long to get to Calgary as it does to get to Redding. Here's to plenty of travels in 2010 and many photos.

our cousins

These are our cousins. We drove 12 hours to see these cousins. Well, actually, I made it from Seattle to Redding in 11 hours. We woke up at 4 am to see our family. We started driving at 5 am. I had to turn around to get my phone. Luckily I was only 1 mile down the freeway. We had a beautiful sunrise to enjoy that lit up Mt. Rainer as we headed for the Oregon border. I really enjoyed driving during the day and not into the night. This might become my new routine. We made it to Redding around 4 pm and were able to visit with my brother, Bryan and his wife, Robin. They drove up for the day to see us. I love them!

So we went to dinner at my cousins house and saw my cousins from Georgia. We haven't seen them since November 2005! Their two kids are the same ages as my middle two. It was a blast. I'm still trying to remember how we squeezed so much into 3 days. Really, 2 days.

My oldest, Miss M, stayed home with Dad to stay in school. She had a few school events that week. Mr C was very happy to get out of school for a few days and visit his family. We drove all day Wednesday and then had dinner with my Dad and cousins. There was myself, my brother and 3 of my cousins there. And then our kids, 8 in total. I love that these second or third cousins (or is it 2nd cousins - once removed), can play together and know each other so well. Little C will be 3 this July and he woke up in the morning saying "all my cousins are coming over to play? They will all play in my room again?" It's wonderful to hear.

On Thursday, we met up for Starbucks for breakfast and took the kids to the park. Redding has a great wood structured park with a spray zone attached for those hot days (and there are hot days!) Luckily, this visit, there were none. We went to lunch and decided to drive up to Burney Falls. Beautiful drive and even more beautiful waterfalls. Unfortunately it was raining when we got there, but I live in Seattle and always have umbrellas in my car. We hiked down to the bottom and took some pictures before hiking back up. I so need to work out. The hike up was very lung breathing unfriendly! We drove the hour back to Redding to attend my cousins 8th grade graduation. I said we did a lot! We all headed home after that to get some sleep.

On Friday, it rained! We met up at Starbucks after my kids got haircuts. We went to the Mt. Shasta Mall to play in the soft playground in the mall. It was dry inside. We had Round Table for lunch. Apparently there are none on the East Coast. It was delicious. We can fill up a room when we all get together. There were 6 adults and 7 kids (plus 2 teenagers), I should remember to not get outnumbered by the little ones. We decided to take the kids to see "Up!" and had an hour to kill. We went to the Sundial Bridge and walked across. The kids enjoy hanging from the cables like little sloths. We went to the movies and enjoyed 2 hours of kid quiet time. Afterwards we agreed to meet up at my Aunts house and think about dinner and just talk. My Dad didn't hear this part and ended up at my cousins in Anderson. He said he had a nice visit there too. We ended up meeting him in town for dinner. By the time we were done visiting (we weren't really, but it was late), I had to haul off my tired kids for baths and bed. It was 11 pm and we had a 12 hour drive ahead of us on Saturday.

Saturday ended up being a late start. I was in no hurry to get back home. We took our time. We left Redding at 10am and made lots of stops along the way. Going to the bathroom, running around and stopping for food. I paid for it at the end of the night when 13 hours later, I finally pulled into our driveway...exhausted.

Will I do it again? Of course! I love my cousins and had the best time. I hope that after this tour in Iraq (for James, my cousin) that we can go visit them. They will be moving for 3 years and then finding a new home. We are going to persuade them to pick Washington so that they are closer to us. Hint...Hint!

Forks, WA

We decided to go to the Washington coast before our anniversary and our weekends got crazy busy. We last visited Forks, WA 10 years ago. I had just finished reading the Twilight books, but this is not why we were going. Honestly, Forks is this little tiny town and I'm impressed that they are embracing their spotlight with this book series.

So, we left Lynnwood on a Saturday morning and drove over to Edmonds to catch the ferry across Puget Sound. We went inside (instead of sitting in the car like usual) and enjoyed the sunny 1/2 hour crossing. We stopped for some McDonalds and gas in Kingston, WA. You really need to get gas when you see it since the towns are far apart on the Peninsula. We drove the 1-1/2 up to Port Angeles, WA. We were in luck, the sun was still shining and I found a starbucks (I'm a serious mocha addict). The we drove off again. We drove around Crescent Lake (honestly, the most inspiring lake to drive along).
We were almost to Forks and turned right to head to La Push, WA. We had seen some cabins for rent on the internet and wanted to see if they were available (OceanSide Resort - La Push, WA).

The cabins are right on First Beach in La Push, WA. We parked and played on the beach. The first Twilight references were already spotted. There was a "No Vampires Beyond This Point" on a sign at the La Push boundries and then I spotted a "Alice Cullen was here" written in the sand. I knew we were in for a fun weekend of Twilight spotting. The cabins were just 50 feet off the beach. We rented a 2 bedroom cabin. They come with firewood, a living room, kitchen, 2 bedrooms and a bathroom. It was a perfect weekend. It was almost our 10 year anniversary, so we were celebrating with the kids.

We drove into Forks and had some dinner at a terrible Chinese restaurant. We found the only grocery store and bought some marshmallows for roasting on the beach, some wine (for after the kids go to bed) and some OJ and treats for the morning. We were racing the clouds back to the beach. It had been sunny all day and we wanted to see the sunset. The clouds rolled in the thick and blocked out all chances of seeing the sun set.
We bought a $5 fire permit and had a small beach fire and roasted all the marshmallows instead. The kids had a great day and took awhile to get to bed. Once they were asleep, Marc and I sat outside on the adriondack chairs to drink our wine. It was way too cold though. We went inside, started the woodstove and stared out our large picture window, catching a glimpse of the ocean.

The next morning, we went back on the beach, but it was still cold and the little ones were done. I took them back to the cabin and we packed up. I'm looking forward to another visit to La Push to stay in the cabins longer.

We went into town and visited "Dazzled by Twilight". The store is so full of Twilight stuff. My kids bought vampire teeth for only $0.50 each. We went to the local grocery store to get lunch food and coffee (there is no starbucks in Forks). I spotted a specials board with Twilight specials for food and coffee. It was embarrassing, but I took the pictures anyway. The town was having an auction all weekend to raise money for high school senior scholarships. The cashier told me that a Twilight poster signed by Catherine Hardwick went for about $4000!!!

We stopped at the information station on the way out of town and took a picture in front of the "Bella truck". We were heading to the Hoh Rain Forest. It was cloudy and rainy, but we were hoping. Sure enough, as we got near the end of the 20 mile drive from the freeway to the ranger station, the sun starting to break out. We came across a herd of Roosevelt Elk. We got to the ranger station and the ranger recommended we take the Spruce hike and then go off trail about half way to throw rocks in the river. He said it was his kids favorite thing to do. So, we did and it was great. We were there about an 1-1/2 total. We got back to the car to eat snacks then go on the Hall of Mosses trail when it started to sprinkle. That was our clue to leave. It was a great weekend.

We got back to the ferry in Kingston and home around 8PM. After our showers and books, the kids fell fast asleep and I thanked Marc for a great anniversary weekend. ;)