We drove over to the top of California to camp in the Redwoods, visit with Chris’ parents and visit the beach.
It was so nice to play in the sand, to toss driftwood (or logs!) in the water and watch pieces go out and come back in or sometimes just keep moving out.
The kids made their own game using driftwood, rocks and shell pieces and played for hours.
We collected shells, especially lots of sand dollars.
We caught up with Chris’ parents and had lots of fun with them on the beach, at the aquarium, at Trees of Mystery. It’s always so good to see them and the kids look forward to every visit we get.
We went down the the beach early to tide pool.
As we were about to leave the beach I looked out and spotted something with a fin so we watched for a while as several dolphins, lots of pelicans and other birds and a family of sea otters were catching some fish out in the water. Lilah was particularly excited to see dolphins!
We picked wild blackberries on the trail to the beach.
We saw sea birds, sea stars, anemones, mussels, barnacles, snails, limpets, hermit crabs having a fight over a shell, other crabs, fish, a tiny sea cucumber, chitons, a nudibranch and a gumboot chiton at the beach.
At the campsite in the redwoods we saw jays, ravens, other birds I didn’t recognize, chipmunks, mushrooms and banana slugs.
There are large stumps of old, old redwoods to climb on, in and around all through the campground.
It was wonderful. It’s so much fun to go exploring in types of places we don’t have near home (and types we do)!
They’ve been playing MineCraft and Gavin has been researching how to learn Java (programming language) so he can make mods for MineCraft.
Gavin worked on his book and Lilah began a comic book about two cats.
We biked to the park and then Gavin went home for the foam swords and they battled.
We drove down to a raspberry farm where you can pick your own berries and pay by the pound to meet with friends and pick raspberries. We ended up with lots of yummy berries and Lilah decided that she likes raspberries after trying them. We all agreed that they tasted much better than what we can find in the grocery store.
One afternoon we biked our furthest trip with the kids yet, out to a park with giant cat sculptures.
We played a round of Above and Below, Gavin’s new game.
The kids played No Stress Chess.
We tie dyed some more things, pillow cases, a dress for Lilah, t shirt for Gavin, some sheets for Chris and I and a tablecloth for picnics and camping!
All four of went to a picnic at the park with our local unschooling group. There was baseball, soccer, a parachute, a playground, Pokemon Go, tree climbing, and so much more.
On my birthday evening we hiked up to Cecret Lake. The kids were interested in the wrongly spelled name. They climbed the rocks on the way up and we spotted a hawk eating its dinner about ten feet from the trail. At the top we spotted a bunch of salamanders in the lake and watched the sun set. It was beautiful.
We went to a concert in a park and the kids danced and danced. I wish I had pictures but it was dark so I don’t.
We went on a walk up City Creek Canyon nearby. Lilah and I dipped our feet in the water. The kids tossed rocks and tried to splash across the stream. We saw a little snake swimming and then a bigger snake with something in its’ mouth. When we got closer we saw it was swallowing a fish! It moved it’s mouth and a minute later the fish was just a lump in it’s belly and it was off to do other things.
On the way down we spotted a coyote up on a hill. It spotted us too and we looked at each other for thirty seconds or so until it trotted off, over the crest and out of sight.
We went to a Renaissance Faire, got dressed up and saw a jousting session, armored fighting, horseback gymnastics and we even petted some goats and pigs. We are looking forward to going again next year.
The kids have been reading a lot of Shel Silverstein poetry and many graphic novels. At bedtime Chris is reading Eragon and the Harry Potter series to them. Gavin has been doing research on Skylanders, a video game that he’s interested in both on the internet and by checking library books on the game out and has recently started doing many chores to save up to purchase some of them soon.
Today we went to the water park for a last visit of the summer and are getting ready to head to northern California to see grandparents and the beach this weekend. I can’t wait!
We went to Yellowstone National Park over a weekend and then, we went again the next weekend with family! It was a little crazy, being home for 3 days to do laundry and grocery runs and then head back the same place but it was so much fun to be in the park.
We lounged in hammocks with friends and the kids played a game based on Pokemon for hours together.
We walked up the road to the lake shore and the kids swam and kayaked and played in the sand.
We huddled under a canopy and played games while it rained and then roasted marshmallows as it sprinkled.
We dipped our feet in the Firehole river and picnicked with the company of jays, ravens, chipmunks, a deer.
We walked miles and miles and waited and waited to see several spectacular geysers as well as really wonderful smaller ones. We admired hot springs and fumaroles.
There are all kinds of surprises in Yellowstone, but I didn’t expect this one: a smily face out of nails in the boardwalk.
We even got a game or two in while camping! (We LOVE games in this family!)
We spotted bison, including two who were head butting each other. We saw elk lounging by the river and crossing streets. We saw deer and a fox. We heard Sandhill cranes in the mornings. We even spotted a swallow landing in a hole in a post on a walkway bridge. We looked inside and saw two baby swallows looking back!
The kids built a fire with minimal assistance and happily tended it while Chris and I worked to make breakfast and pack up camp.
It’s a beautiful place and we thoroughly enjoyed it.
We drove to a new friends’ house and the kids played nerf gun attacks, played in the pool and played MineCraft together. They had a great time. Gavin was super excited to ride this mini motorcycle with his friends instructions and encouragement!
We went roller skating for the first time all summer! It was fun. The kids wanted to play in the bounce area and climbing area so I asked them to clean the living room and in return I would pay extra for them to do those things. We all skated for a bit and then the kids went to climb and bounce and I skated a bit more myself.
Chris and the kids went bowling with their Scout group. They had a good time and Gavin had a good game of it. The last time we went (a year or so ago) he was frustrated by his gutter balls.
We went up to Silver Lake for a picnic, walk and a climb. It was lovely and cool up there. The kids climbed this rock and looked down on us. On the other side of the lake there was frolicking.
We walked to the library and checked out some more graphic novels for the kids. Gavin knows right where books about MineCraft and Lego are and Lilah is well acquainted with the non-fiction animals shelves.
Lilah’s been folding tiny origami things, mostly animals.
Gavin celebrated his 11th birthday last week with friends at a playgroup, again with friends out for miniature golf and more bowling and then the next day with family for games and love. Wow! After hanging out with grandma and grandpa and aunt and us, he chose to go out for his favorite, Thai food for dinner.
We went to the water park and enjoyed cooling off in the wave pool and lazy river and occasionally taking shady breaks to lounge in the tubes.
We’ve been watching lizards in our front yard. There are at least two, skittering around under our plants and occasionally showing their stripey, blue tinged selves. How fun!
Gavin and Lilah made things from a tinker crate and from Gavin’s birthday loot. Gavin made a robot and Lilah made a racing car.
Gavin asked for a big set of colored pencils for his birthday (Anytime the kids ask for art materials I pretty much drop everything and run to the store. Haha!) and has been enjoying organizing them and examining how the pencils are organized by their numbers and trying them with some drawings.
The kids have been watching Pokemon, jump-started by playing Pokemon Go and telling me all about the Pokemon universe and its inhabitants. Lilah even decorated a balloon as Pikachu.
We’ve been enjoying the water park most weeks this summer. This week Gavin went on his first water slide with my sister who joined us. He was so excited!
Eleven years old! We even got to talk about how “teenage” usually refers to the numbers with “teen” in them though the set between 10 and 19 obviously go together in their own space and what a “tween” is.
We’ve been so busy this summer! It’s one of those things I struggle with; finding a balance between enough time with friends and things to do and enough time to sit, relax, wonder, read and be at home. My personal inclinations are often along the lines of more time unscheduled at home but since we’ve been forming new friends and community we’ve been doing so many things to facilitate that. Sometimes I am tired of doing so much. Always I am grateful for the opportunities we have to go out into the world and spend time with people. Many weeks I am thinking about how much to do. I think we will speed and slow with the weather and seasons probably, as well as what stages the kids are in.
Here are some of the fun things we’ve been doing.
We spent a weekend at a cabin in the mountains with my parents and some moose and the best swing in the world. It was quiet and the air smelled like pine. Mmmm. I dream of a time-share in a cabin in the woods, in the desert, by the sea.
I found a new favorite toy: an app on my phone called prisma that alters pictures into new, artistically styled versions. The kids love it too. Yesterday Lilah spent a good 45 minutes filtering on photo over and over.
We went the local aviary and visited with lots of birds in exhibits and also a few there of their own choice. There were some barn swallows hanging out in the bathroom building, one on the hinge and some others in a nest in the back. This is the bird Gavin wanted a photo of.
We took the kids to some MLS soccer games, one with fireworks on the pitch afterward. They enjoyed throwing streamers, chanting support songs and watching fireworks.
The kids and I drove up into the Uintah mountains to an area full of lakes and explored. There were salamanders in the lakes and water lilies, wildflowers and also lots of flies (which were quite obnoxious). There’s an area there where there is floating grass that will very slowly sink into the edge of the water if you stand on it so I showed the kids that. It was fun for me but they were nervous. Some of the salamanders were striped and some had frills on their necks. I’m not sure if there were multiple species or just different ages and sexes. The kids tossed rocks toward the lake edge and a butterfly kept landing on Lilah’s skirt and trying to find nectar.
Some of the salamanders were striped and some had frills on their necks. I’m not sure if there were multiple species or just different ages and sexes. The kids tossed rocks toward the lake edge and a butterfly kept landing on Lilah’s skirt and trying to find nectar.
Here’s Lilah watching the butterfly coming to land on her skirt:
All four of us took a hike with the local unschoolers group. That was really fun to do with friends. The kids chatted all the way up and encouraged each other. Lilah and some friends tossed dirt in the air in puffs at the top. Gavin and Chris and I sat on the rocks and watched the water ripple under the wind and the chipmunks scurry around looking for hiker’s snacks.
We’ve been enjoying walking and biking to our neighborhood library, checking out lots of books. The kids have both very much been enjoying various books of poetry by Shel Silverstein lately, which is really fun!
Lilah made this friendly looking cat…
that changes into this fierce creature!
We went to a farm that makes essential oils and watched their process and afterward visited a fish hatchery to hear about what they do there, which is grow and tend fish until they get big enough to release into lakes and rivers in the area. They had rainbow trout this time.
Lilah wove a tapestry, a Doodle Crate project. She loved it! I think there will be more weaving happening.
We tie-dyed with friends. We dyed towels and a shirt for Gavin, a dress for Lilah and a shirt for me. They came out beautifully! Well, except my towel which needs another round of dye. It’s hard to get enough dye into an absorbent towel tied up! The heart Lilah has been wanting to accomplish for years came out so nicely. Gavin researched techniques and settled on a “sunburst” pattern for his shirt and a “crumple” pattern for his towel.
We’ve been playing Pokemon Go on my phone, walking to find pokemon and balls to catch them in, collecting pokemon, feeding them candy, evolving them. The kids have been interested in pokemon for years so they are pretty excited about the game. I get to ask them all sorts of fun questions as we play. We figured out the different types of pokemon you find have to do with the local terrain, like water pokemon are near lakes, ice pokemon in cooler places. Here’s the first one we caught and a favorite:
We’ve been doing a lot of water play this summer. At parks with water features, at the pool at the waterpark, at “the beach”, a small lake with a nice sandy beach and cold water.
We’ve been biking and hiking.
We’ve been reading. The kids have been checking a lot of graphic novels out lately which is fun.
We’ve been gaming. Rat-a-Tat Cat with Lilah and Dominion with Gavin and then with both kids.
We drove up to the top of Idaho to visit with my aunt and grandmother for a few days. It was nice to see them and be there and we checked out the local parks while we were there.
The kids really enjoyed a badminton set that my aunt has, hitting birdies and balloons around the back yard.
We finished listening to The One and Only Ivan by Kristina Applegate in the car and began another in the Redwall series, Mariel of Redwall by Brian Jacques. We spotted license plates from many states. We saw a small wildfire on the side of the road and many many fields of crops growing green, gold, and yellow.
The kids spotted a tinker crate box on the porch today, and immediately set out to open it and tinker. This one had things to build a lava lamp which they had put together in twenty minutes and are absolutely thrilled by.
Playing outside is lovely this time of year.
I’m noticing lots of evidence of newer awareness, like the question, “Is so-and-so thinking of me?”, and “I think I should have had just the strawberries, instead of strawberries and cookies. Now my tummy hurts.”
We’ve been biking to the library, playing games, taking care of our pets, playing with friends, going to the water park,
celebrating three friends’ birthdays in a week’s time, listening to Polly Horvath’s Mr. and Mrs. Bunny– Detectives Extraordinaire! and Lord and Lady Bunny– Almost Royalty! We loved both.
We’ve been visiting an elk ranch where we fed elk and learned about them and saw lots of beautiful elk plus a blind lamb that loves to eat weeds,
making dinosaur paper dolls for one of our friends.
We’ve had long conversations about big news stories with the kids, trying to give them information about the world we all inhabit together. We watched a short video about consent as explained by cups of tea. (You can offer someone some tea, but if they refuse or can not answer or don’t answer positively, then you must not make them drink the tea.) We’ve been talking a lot about the presidential election and candidates and process of choosing a president. We had a great conversation about vitamins, what they are and where they come from and what they do for our bodies and conversely what happens to us when we don’t get certain vitamins.
We’ve been hiking,
picking strawberries from our garden,
watching hummingbirds collecting spiderwebs and drinking nectar.
Gavin went to a birthday party with biking and water play while Lilah, Chris and I decorated stacking dolls. Lilah’s are two cats and a mouse, Chris’ are aliens and a human and mine are a bear, a bird and a cat.
They played in a big tube that my sister found for the kids. Grandpa helped them explore possibilities.
We talked about the fact that it’s the summer solstice, the longest day of the year and the kids asked when the light started and stopped so we looked up sunrise and sunset and calculated how many hours and minutes of light (sun up) there were: 15 hours and 7 minutes.
That’s a brief and very truncated peek into our last week or so. There’s always something to explore, enjoy, wonder about!
We enjoyed a long weekend at Arches National Park.
We were able to obtain a permit to head into Fiery Furnace one day and spent hours exploring winding passages, caves, huge boulders, hidden passages and arches that many don’t ever see. I can’t wait to go back in!
At the park we were:
hiking
climbing
exploring
enjoying
playing
spotting ravens, tadpoles,
caterpillars,
lizards, several kinds of rabbits, flowers of many kinds,
snakes
climbing
& more.
It’s a good life, filled to the brim with light and learning, love and wonder.
We headed south to Goblin Valley for the weekend to spend time outside with Chris.
While setting up our site, we saw a part of a sunshade or tent blowing up in the sky, probably 60 to 70 feet up, almost over the mountain behind the campground. We were happy our tent does well in wind, though it wasn’t nearly as windy as it has been on other visits.
These rocks in Goblin Valley are so much fun to climb, jump from one to another, explore and play hide and seek in. We went in a direction we hadn’t on previous trips and found a window to another valley.
We got caught in a quick rainstorm which was exciting and a little upsetting for the kids. Afterward we found a nice cave to wait out some gusty winds.
The second day we packed up camp while Gavin did some rock balancing and then invited Lilah to help him with some heavier rocks. They engineered a whole bunch of these while the car was packed up. I love to spend time balancing rocks and am so glad Gavin and Lilah enjoy it too. It’s a great way to spend a few minutes slowing down, getting your hands dirty, practicing trial and error methods and getting creative with nature.
Then we headed to Little Wild Horse Canyon, a slot canyon very close by. We climbed up and explored and enjoyed the sun and shade, flowers and ravens and lizards and sand.
We headed back to the goblins for dinner and a few last games of hide and seek in the rocks before heading home. The kids are specks out there among the goblins.
Gavin read poems from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein to Lilah. He stopped to eat a bite of pancake and Lilah immediately requested he read more.
Lilah and I made some fairy wings and skirts for our May Day event.
We tested out a new giant bubble recipe.
May Day/Beltane festival with our unschooling group including fairy and knight dress up, boffer weapon making, sidewalk chalk drawing, flower crown designing, may pole dancing and singing. Lovely!
We’ve had friends over for Lego building and restaurant pretending and snack eating.
I dug holes for some lilacs to create a hedge in our back yard and dug up the garden in anticipation of planting vegetables.
Gavin and I played Chess.
Lilah saved up for a new Lego set and the kids put that together after a great discussion about how Gavin could help but in a way and amount Lilah was happy with.
We saw the first oriole of the year and put out nectar for them.
Gavin and I made a boffer sword (foam covered for play without injury) so he could meet friends who had boffer weapons for a battle at the park.
A new tinker crate arrived and the kids put together an earthquake table and buildings to test on the table with much gusto.
Lilah drew a lovely cat.
We watched documentaries about owls and hummingbirds.
Gavin mowed the lawn in order to save up for a Lego set he would like.
We planted most of the garden. The kids picked out potatoes, corn, chiles and helped plant those. I also planted tomatoes, eggplant, squash of various kinds, tomatillos and lemon cucumbers. Still to be put in are carrot seeds.
We met friends at the farm and enjoyed antique machinery, climbing trees, animals and a large pile of hay bales for a slide.
