5,557

Five thousand, five hundred and fifty-seven miles driven in about 5 1/2 days. It took us 2 1/2 days to get to Sand Lake. We could have done better, but that darn deer got in our way and held us up for 9 hours. So here's the details:

Saturday around 7:30pm: Van loaded up and us in our places, and off we go.

Sunday the 11th, our first and full day of driving. Girls demonstrate how to pass the time. We stopped in Bismarck for our first real break. Proof that I helped drive too. We saw lots of exits like this, "No Service". Basically you get off there and you are in the middle of nowhere. Another example of the middle of nowhere.
Only our first full day out and we had made it to the halfway mark! I should also mention we drove all those 5,557 miles without a paper map in the van. We relied solely on the GPS.


Monday early morning, sun just about to come up, driving through the upper peninsula of Michigan: We hit a deer. Destroyed radiator amongst other things. We had to wait 3 hours for a tow truck to take us to the closest "big" city which was Marquette, MI.

Monday afternoon: It took us 9 hours to get the insurance process started on the van, the Honda dealership/body shop on board with how we wanted the van fixed, rent the very last vehicle available in that town (2000 Chrysler Town n Country with over 109K miles on it already), and start heading to the Canadian border. The girls were a little worried during the ordeal so we tried to keep things upbeat.

Monday evening: With our new timeline going we realized if we drove straight to the island we would arrive in the middle of the night. So we had a few hours to burn and decided to do that at Sault Ste. Marie, the last city before we cross the border into Ontario Canada. We watched boats go through the Soo Locks. Played at a nearby playground and let Kelbi run for awhile. And watched the boats go through the canal. On the other side of the canal is Canada! We ate some pizza and did our final grocery shopping and then headed to the border. There was a 15 minute wait to get to the border patrol. I finally got to use my Passport for the first time, luckily before it expires next year. The girls had their birth certificates and Kelbi had her rabies vaccination certificate. The first thing we did when we got into Canada was.... look for a bathroom, Isabel had to go. Then we settled in for our last night of driving.

Tuesday 8:30am local time: We arrive at the boat ramp, unload our belongings onto the boat dock and wait for our friends to pick us up and take us to the island.

Once there, we were ready to start the fun. Khalila went right out in the row boat with Graham. The raft was a big hit, jumping on, jumping off and swimming around. Swimming was a main event almost every day. Other fun activities included: boating/skiing, fishing, hanging out at the beach, sailing, kayaking(aka exercising Kelbi), canoeing, playing games, eating, tie dying, sleeping, cooking, playing on the raft, and best of all lounging with friends.

Kelbi had a blast on the island. She had lots of people throwing the ball for her, she ran free the whole time we were there, swam, and even chased a mink/weasel across the causeway.

Wednesday evening was our last sunset on the island. We made it back to the van around 9:30 and started our journey back home. We still had to pick up our van that was in Marquette, MI and had plans to meet my family in Wausau, WI the next day.

Thursday morning we arrived in Marquette, MI around 11:30am, switched vehicles, stopped at the claims office, freshened up Kelbi and then we were off to Wausau. We got to the Super 8 where my mom and dad and sister and her kids were waiting for us. We swam, hung out in the room, had a nice breakfast, and the safe provided some entertainment.

While we were in Wausau we took in some local attractions. We played a little musical vehicles and headed to a downhill skiing area, which in July is about as exciting as a big grassy hill can be. But we did find a nice place to get a group shot. We then headed to Rib Falls. Turns out there, you can play at a playground, and walk to Rib River, but see the falls, no. We saw some rapids, took a quick kids' photo, (Here's Dad up in the park still) and then we headed back out of the grassy marshland. Turns out the best view of the falls is from the road. At this point, we bid farewell to everyone and they began their trip back to Indy and we started headed west again.

But before we really hit the road, Jabran saw that we were close to the 45°N, 90°W mark. The exact center of the northern hemisphere. We just couldn't pass that up without a visit. And we couldn't drive through Colby, WI without stopping at a cheese shop.

To the excitement of everyone, it was time to really hit the road moving again. The girls were happy to have their DVD players back. We had to leave those behind when we switched to the rental van. At a rest stop somewhere in North Dakota, I snapped this shot of the sunset. While driving in North Dakota, we decided to make use of our tent and sleeping bags and camp at a KOA in Bismarck. We got there at 12:45am and left by 7:00am Saturday morning. We took sleeping kids out of their car seats and into their sleeping bags. And then put them back in their car seats still sleeping. They probably have not recollection of staying in the tent.

Saturday, our last day of traveling. We stop at a rest area that had a nice viewing area of the badlands. We are pretty sure we saw a wild bison while driving on the interstate. But I didn't have my camera ready so I didn't get the photo. The views that day were amazing. We stopped in Missoula, MT for dinner at the Iron Horse Brew Pub. And we took sometime to wander around Missoula's train depot. We hit the trail again with Edmonds as our goal that night. We made it back home at 2:22am Sunday morning. Luckily no deer were injured on our return trip. We had a blast and now we know we can go and survive a very long car ride.

Isabel's last day of Kindergarten

Yes the headline is right, I meant Isabel. She goes to Kindergarten with me every Friday morning to help out in the classroom. I took some pictures here or there throughout the year. One of her favorite parts was to help set out the snack while the kids were at their PE class. Unless of course I let her go to the gym too. She was there the day the class investigated live snails. But really she just blended in with the group and did (for the most part) what they were doing. Here she is reading a book at the beginning of class. And she always sat on her floor spot next to Khalila during the teacher's instruction time. And when the project or craft was going on she would do her own smaller version at her table. The only thing I forgot to get a picture of that she really liked at school was doing the Pledge of Allegiance. She can almost say and sign the whole thing. Khalila still has two weeks of school left, but the next two Fridays are going to be busy ones, so I will be finding somewhere else for Isabel to go those last two Fridays. This experience has definitely gotten her ready for preschool next year. Seems Khalila's kindergarten class was Isabel's pre-preschool.

Heybrook Lookout

Andrew came to visit us in January. We had a dry on the Sunday he was here so we went on hike to Heybrook Lookout just off Highway 2. I've uploaded the GPS track file and geo-tagged pictures to EveryTrail.com.

Heybrook Lookout

Map your trip with EveryTrail

Around the House and Beyond

Baby Burritos


Lounging on the couch


Hiking with Andrew


Isabel setting up snack for the kindergarteners


Selling Girl Scout Cookies


Funny face


Kelbi warming up clothes before the girls get dressed.


Building blocks with papa


Studying snails at school


Holy Saturday wearing dresses from Sittee

Pascha/Easter Morning

Isabel is Two

I've been a very bad 21st century mom and haven't posted pictures of my darlings on our family blog for quite awhile. I'll try to get caught up eventually, but right now I want to share Isabel's birthday party photos. We had some friends over on January 29th to celebrate Isabel's 2nd year of life. She enjoyed having chili and juice with all her guests. Although I think the cake was her favorite part. I can't take credit for the cake this year. Kim, Isabel's Shbeenti, made the cake for her. She blew out her candles and everyone enjoyed a piece. Of course the kids all wanted part of Elmo on their piece. This wasn't just a kids' party, we had their adults with them as well, but the real party was going on in the girls' bedroom. After some play time it was present time. One of her favorite presents was the Elmo she received from her Shbeeni.

On her actual birthday, Feb 3rd, she got to open the gift from Jabran and me. We got her a wooden train set. Grandma and Grandpa had sent ahead of time a card with money in it. I was able to use that money to buy additional tracks so we could build more than just a figure 8 track. Isabel "read" her birthday card from them before playing with her trains again.

Then it was bathtime. She thought it would be good start to off her third year on a clean note. And then time for left over Elmo cake.

The next day we got to celebrate again, when the package from Sittee arrived. She got some dresses and paint by water books and lots of doll stuff.

Christ is Born! Glorify Him!

Merry Christmas to all the furriestdog.com readers. We had a great Christmas day here in Edmonds, WA. We started off with celebrating the Divine Liturgy at church. Then came home and ate a nice hardy breakfast. The girls were anxious to get started with the gift exchanging. Khalila actually insisted that Papa would open the first gift. Unfortunately I'm very bad with remembering the camera and didn't get a shot of that first gift. But here he is opening the rest of his gifts throughout the afternoon. I was the next to start the unwrapping. Here I am with my gift opening of the day. Here's Khalila unwrapping her gifts. And Isabel knew exactly what to do in the gift chair. Kelbi even got in on the gift action. A big hit of the day was a present Isabel received, the Little People School Bus. Khalila might have actually played with it more today. Another big hit was Jabran's IR temperature sensor. He checked the temperature on every thing we touched, ate, or was laying around.

And at 4:30pm, the moment Khalila was born on Christmas day 6 years ago, she opened her birthday presents from us.

We had a nice dinner with Ribeye roast, mashed potatoes, veggies and more. Isabel loved the beef, couldn't get it on her plate fast enough. Khalila was being a little difficult throughout the day, and Jabran just enjoyed a great meal. And I set the camera down and enjoyed the meal with him.

That sums up our Christmas day.

Bop aka The Stamp

Isabel is obsessed with getting a stamp at the end of Khalila's kindergarten class each day. She lives for this moment. Jabran asked me to video it since he hasn't seen the actual stamp given but hears about it all the time. As you can tell it's not that big of a deal but boy is it special to Isabel. She goes around all day with her hand on her head saying "bop, bop". A lot of times she doesn't like getting even a pretend one. She'll wipe it off and yell "no". It has to be the one from Ms. Rust or not at all.

Girl Scouts

Khalila has joined the girl scouts. She's in the Daisies right now. We've only had one meeting so far, but tomorrow will be meeting number two. So I thought I better post these pictures from last month so I can at least say I got these up before the next meeting. Here's the group working on a coloring project. They played musical chairs and Simon Says. And at the end we learned the Friendship Circle.

Halloween

We started off our Halloween festivities by carving the pumpkins we picked out on the Farm. Kim was with us the evening we did these, so she helped Isabel scoop out all those seeds. I carved Isabel's pumpkin and Jabran did Khalila's. Here are all the pictures from that evening. Khalila's pumpkin is on the left in the picture posted with this blog.

Friday evening, Khalila's school had a Halloween Party. We ate pizza, went through a Haunted House (the under 8 years old version) and played some games in the gym. Here's Khalila in her costume, waiting for an activity. Here she is decorating a lolipop and a cookie. Isabel got a tattoo, which she had trouble showing the camera, but you can see her penguin pretty good while she eats her frosted graham cracker. Right before we called it an evening, we did the cake walk.

Finally on the actual day of Halloween, we didn't take any pictures (totally unlike us). But I did get a picture of the girls in their costumes on other days. So here is Isabel the flower and Khalila the fairy princess.

Pumpkin Patch

We went on our annual Pumpkin Patch trip, except this time we didn't go with a school group. We went on a Saturday morning, just the 4 of us. (and everyone else that decided the last Saturday before Halloween would be a good day to visit the farm) The haystack was a huge hit again this year. Isabel got to participate little more this time too. I personally like the corn bin. I had to go in with the girls, to watch over them of course. We watched the duck race, had fun on some new slides, rode a tractor, went through the petting farm, saw a pig show, and got some pumpkins.

Mom & Dad Visit

My parents came out for a visit in October. They brought out a couple things for the girls from Jabran's mom, Sittee. Khalila got a homemade "back-to-school" jumper and Isabel got a couple of swimsuits. Mom and Dad went to the YMCA with Isabel and I, our usual Tuesday routine. First we do the family circuit class, then swim lessons.

We also enjoyed just spending some time at home. Isabel likes to be pulled in the wagon. We hung out in the backyard a lot, and Isabel showed Grandma and Grandpa how she is ready to be the next sous chef.

Our big event while they were here was going to Leavenworth for the weekend. We arrived at our cabin late in the afternoon so we just hung out there that first evening, playing games, sitting around the fire and hot-tubbing.

The next day, we started off not really knowing what we were going to do all day. We were heading to Cashmere to check out the Aplets & Cotlets Factory, when Isabel indicated she needed a pit stop. So we pulled over at Smallwood Harvest. They were having a small festival with kids' games, petting zoo, fruit and veggie stand. So we decided to stay for a while and check it out. The girls seemed to like the petting zoo the best.

After enjoying our impromptu festival we headed on over to Cashmere. We had packed a lunch so we decided to find a place there to sit down and enjoy our sandwiches. Unfortunately the weather was quite chilly and there were no indoor options in this very small town. We found a park, Railroad Park, to stop at. Half of the group was too cold to be outside so they stayed in the van. The other half stayed out. While we were out there a train went by. We finally made it to the Aplets & Cotlets factory. We took the tour, which wasn't too exciting as they don't make any candy on the weekends. So we just looked at their equipment. The girls would have been much more impressed if they actually saw candy being made. Here we are as we leave.

Our next stop was another unexpected adventure. We went to the Cider Mill that was in town. They had a tasting room to try all there fancy, artisan ciders. They market these non-alcoholic ciders as an alternative to wine. So they bottle them in wine bottles and price them like they are wine. we all enjoyed the variety of flavors. The only pictures we took there were these outside on their big deck dancing.

The next place on our journey was the National Fish Hatchery. (Do we know how to have a good time or what?) We saw lots of fish in the beginning stages of their life cycle. There was a nature walk on the property that we went on as well.

After the walk we headed into Leavenworth. The big Oktoberfest was going on and the place was packed. Isabel fell asleep so Jabran stayed in the van with her and the rest of us visited a few shops. We found a restaurant to have dinner at and decided with the crowds it was best to eat a little early and head back to the cabin. This of course meant waking up a sleeping baby, which is always a bad idea. We got through the meal with a cranky Isabel and headed back to the cabin. Speaking of cabin, here's some pictures of it.

Unfortunately, Khalila spiked a fever the last day we were there so we had to bag the hike we had planned and just head home. We all fit nicely in the new minivan. The views on the way back were beautiful.

Of course we had to take advantage of my dad being out here and get some big project done. This time it was a fence around the woodstack. Our dog, also known as "kangaroo-dog" can jump up on the woodstake, no matter how high it's stacked, and get out of the yard. So now we have a 6 foot chainlink fence around it and so far it seems to be doing the trick of keeping our dog in the yard.

While the guys were out working, Khalila was inside playing Rummikub with Grandma. And isabel was keeping herself busy.

That's pretty much covers all the fun we had with Grandma and Grandpa. We can't wait to see them again around Christmas!

Operation Clean up Cabin

Kim's family has a cabin in Skykomish, WA. No one had been to the cabin for a couple years. So Kim suggested we go check it out with her and help get it ready. Then in the fall and winter we could enjoy it. The place was in pretty good shape for being left alone for so long. The driveway had some branches that needed to be cleared away, in order to actually park the vehicles on. We had a huge fire going the whole day. One of the big things Kim wanted to have done was to remove several old box springs and mattresses from the upper level. Unfortunately the opening to the upper level was too small to send the mattresses down that way. So Jabran cut up the box springs and then he and I shoved the folded up box spring out a small window where they landed down below. The next major task was putting all the mattresses and such in and on the vehicles to take to the transfer station, which luckily was just a mile or so away. Here's Kim driving with her SUV loaded down.

After an afternoon of hard work, we were able to relax and play a little. This is cute, Isabel loves Tobie. We ended the day with a nice meal.

Iron Goat Trail

We are still enjoying our warm summer. In September we decided to go on a hike and do the Iron Goat Trail. I've heard good things about it so we went and checked it out for ourselves. Todd and Sarah came with us for the journey. We started off a little before 11:00am and enjoyed the flat path and interesting things along the way. We walked along this huge concrete wall that was once used for the railroad tracks that ran through the mountain pass. And we stopped several times and checked out the tunnels. We couldn't walk through it as it's quite unstable in there. But it was nice to stand near the entrance and feel the air condition-like breeze coming from it. We stopped at the halfway point for a bite of lunch. After eating, Isabel wanted to walk rather than ride so as we hiked up to the upper grade, she hit the ground. We stopped several times to check out some lookout points. It was a hot day so anytime we found the cool tunnels we took advantage of the air and we got a chance to get wet with this little waterfall over the wall. Finally we got back to where we had to go down to meet back up with the lower grade. There were lots of short switchbacks. Sarah and Khalila were a head of us. Here you can see they are a switchback or two below already. Isabel did her usual nap on the way back routine. And here we are back down at the trailhead, 6 miles and about 5 hours later. It was a great hike. Definietly a must-do for all families. Jabran had his new GPS logging device with him to geo-tag the pics and he created this path with picture links on Google Maps.

Summer's Bounty

I've already mentioned in an earlier post that the blueberries loved our hot summer. We were also able to reap the benefits in our own backyard and church yard. Our plum tree had an incredible year. Jabran made 34.5 pints of jam. And if you want a glimpse of what that much jam looks like look here. Jabran got into the canning this year and even went to a friend's house who had an abundance of apples and made applesauce and apple butter. But our apple tree did okay too. The girls like picking and eating them. I also made an apple crisp pie and on several occasions made fried apples for dinner.

And a tree in our yard that has never produced fruit before did this year. Just a few were hanging on the tree. I took one off and cut it open. It looks like another variety of plum, like we need more of those ;(

The girls and I went for a walk one sunny afternoon and picked some blackberries. They grow like weeds around here. I always laugh when I see them at the grocery store. I think who would buy these when you can find them all over the place free for the picking.

Our church community garden had it's first growing season. I posted a blog in February and March about the workparties to set that up. Well here a picture of it as it looks today. We, unfortunately, received some bad soil and therefore did not have a real successful harvest. We did get lots of greenbeans and cucumbers. And we got dragon tongues, which my girls actually liked, probably due to the creative name. We also got some tomatoes, a squash and a little bit of lettuce leaves. We're hoping next year is much better once we get the soil issues ironed out.

Cama Beach

Kim called us early in the week in August and said she had a friend who rented one too many cabins at Cama Beach. So Kim was checking to see if we wanted to use the reservation and go hang out on Camano Island for a few days with her. We decided it sounded like fun and so after church on the 23rd we loaded up the truck and headed west. It was a nice little cabin right on the beach. Here's a view of the row of cabins at the park. This was our view of the sunset each night. There was a playground nearby. And Kim had found a bunch of blackberry bushes. We headed out there for some picking. After some berry picking we took a nice walk along the beach. As the fog cleared out we could see the top of the trees on the peninsula. We brought the dogs with us. But technically they weren't allowed in the cabins. But we sneaked them in after dark and put them in the kennel. The cabin next to us was Kim's friend's cabin. Her family had a blow up kayak. Jabran and Khalila were able to paddle around for awhile. That night we took the dogs on a little walk and then had some homemade ice cream we had all gotten to help crank with the friends/neighbors.

Happy New Year

Khalila has finished her first week of school. The school celebrated by having their first school assembly, where the entire student body gathers in the gym. Here's Khalila sitting with her class. After lots of introductions of school staff and teachers, and info on the first fundraiser (oh boy) was announced streamers were passed out to everyone. Then we counted down from 10 and threw the streamers and cheered happy new year for the beginning of the new school year.

Earlier in the week, Khalila was the VIP, meaning she brought the snack and got to do some little extras throughout the day to help the teacher. One big thing was to do a show and tell. She brought her new pig stuffed animal that we bought her at the fair just a couple weeks ago. She's been wanting a stuffed pig for a long time, it's her favorite animal. She also got to share some good news and here's what she said. Isabel has been cute coming in each day to pick Khalila up and just joining the group for the final dismissal.

1 Day down, 2339 more to go

Khalila started kindergarten today!! She was so excited. As soon as she got up she wanted to make breakfast and eat. Right after that she headed to the bedroom to get dressed and then brush her teeth and comb her hair. All this normally takes her a good hour or so to complete, but today... 30 minutes. She was very excited to wear her new shoes. We bought these a while ago and they have been in her closet waiting for the first day of school. This is rare for her to get new shoes and clothes and not wear them immediately. And here she is, you can just see the excitement in that smile. Jabran stayed home in the morning to take Khalila to her first day at school. She was all ready to go about an hour before we needed to leave. She impatiently waited until 9 to head out the door and walk to school. There's a shortcut at the end of a private dead end road that makes the walk much shorter. Once we got on the school campus she knew exactly where to go. We found her locker to put her backpack in and headed in the classroom. We found her seat and she immediately got working on her first school assignment. Here's a picture with Miss Rust in it, her teacher. And here's a shot to the busy classroom as everyone was getting settled in and all the parents were taking pictures and saying goodbye.

Khalila had a great first day. She really enjoyed it and said she can't wait for tomorrow.

Another milestone was met today with Isabel. I took her out of the house for the first time without a diaper on. She wore her elmo panties and did a great job keeping them dry. Here's a picture of her skinny little physique, bye bye bulking cloth diapers.

Bedtime routine

Most parents try to calm their kids down for bedtime. We, on the other, go for a different approach. We try to wear them out right before bed with a good wrestle and tickle time on the bed each night after the pajama race. The next two videos here show one evening. The first one starts off with Isabel doing her cheesy smile. This is why it's so hard to get a good picture of her these days. And the second one is of the tickle time that is a highlight of each evening.


Tickle Time

Videos staring Khalila

Headstand


New Swing

Shoes

Isabel loves shoes. It's not surprising to us that out of the few words she says, shoes is one of them. She is often found putting on other people's shoes. So I have started a collection of photos of her in different shoes for a future scrapbook page. Here's what I have thus far...