The Tahoe Trip

                                  This is a glimpse of the Lake from Emerald Bay.  Its smaller than Flathead   in surface area, but the average depth is 1000 ft--so it holds WAY more water.
                                    I don't know the name of these beautiful falls just above Emerald Bay on   the south west side of the Lake, but they're in full spring glory.
               A lot of the lake is surrounded by cliffs and peaks like this.  Those clouds were               everywhere.
LOL. I just realized Doug looks kind of angry in this picture.  He's freezing.  This is about 4:30pm on Saturday up on Donner Pass.  It started snowing minutes later.  You can see a giant rock wall behind him, along with one of the snowsheds (necessary for protecting passing trains from snowfall and avalanches during the winter).  Both were constructed by Chinese rail workers in the late 19th century.

We dropped our kids with Amanda on Thursday morning and after Doug finished a quick meeting at McDermont, we headed north.  It always amazes me how short a five or six hour drive can be with no kids in the car--no frequent potty breaks or needs for snacks, with uninterrupted conversation nearly the whole way.  [Ok, so maybe occasionally we interrupted ourselves to sing pieces of Flight of the Concords songs or sing along to the iPod, but that's not the same thing.] And all weekend I was amazed at how light my purse is when I do not have to have on me at all times an extra diaper, a small case of wipes, and various assorted snacks of the goldfish-graham cracker-granola bar variety!

We had a late lunch at In-N-Out (been a while--so delicious) in Placerville, then continued on up Hwy 50 to South Lake Tahoe.  We arrived at the Marriott Timber Lodge at about 4:30 (check in time being 4pm--not too shabby) and I immediately remembered how much I like Marriott's.  I've really liked all the ones we've stayed at, and been impressed with the staff every single time.  I have also come to believe that valet parking, though perhaps overpriced, is a really great part of staying at a nice hotel.  We got everything into our rooms and then went downstairs to wander outside.  The Heavenly Gondola was literally just outside the door, and on the other side of it is a large shopping center called, of course, Heavenly Village.  After realizing how butt-freezing cold it was outside, we walked over to the theater and caught a late matinee of the new Indiana Jones (side note: great flick.  Just all the classic fun of Indiana Jones.  Lots of nudge-wink completely-lacking-in-subtlety references to older Indiana and other Lucas Spielburg movies that was all quite funny).  

Unfortunately, though we had planned to spend most of our trip doing day hiking and just lounging at the lake, the weather turned drastically from the week before, as it is wont to do in high country spring.  Last weekend, it had been in the high 70s and even hit the 80s up there. I'm afraid for all of our stay it was in the 40s and usually raining.  So what did we do?  What any reasonable couple would do:  went to a lot of movies and did a lot of driving.  Ha ha.  We did go to two more movies (Prince Caspian and Iron Man, both fantastic), which makes 3 movies in one weekend.  That's as many movies as I go to in a year, usually.  And I don't regret it one bit.  It was really nice to snuggle down in a dark theater with a big tub of popcorn and watch good movies.  Especially without having to say "Keilana, if you want to talk you need to whisper," every 10 minutes.  

We also went up to the Nevada State Railroad museum in Carson City.  Its a very small museum, but has some beautiful old classic trains and a lot of amazing pictures and maps of the process of getting  the railroad into and through Nevada and the Sierra Nevada mountains.  All the trains they have are older ones, from the 1880s thru the early 1900s, mostly.  Several of them were used in the movie Union Pacific.  

We did drive around the lake a couple times and really enjoyed some of the views from the dry warmth of our car, stopping occasionally to take some picture or climb to a better view.  I was bummed we didn't have appropriate clothing for hiking in the cold and wet, but judging by the cloud cover, we probably wouldn't have gotten very good views from the peaks at all.

We drove up to Truckee on Saturday afternoon and started to head up Donner Pass to try and get some shots of the snow sheds.  We got a few, but decided to turn around when it started to snow pretty steadily.  Heading up Donner Pass in a potential snowstorm just sounded like a bad idea.  So we tried again the next day, earlier in the day.  We checked out in the morning and headed north again.  This time it was clear and sunny, and actually fairly warm down in Truckee where the Emigrant Gap Park and Museum are.  We went through the museum and watched the Donner Party film "The Longest Winter".  It was just depressing (not to mention slightly creepy).  I'm pretty sure I would starve to death and even let my children starve to death before resorting to eating another human being's flesh.  :(

We drove over Donner Pass this time, and it impressed me that anyone made it over that rocky, unfriendly terrain with wagons intact.  It was a beautiful drive.  We made one last side trip, down Emigrant Gap road in search of a camp that Doug went to with his family several times when they were living in Sacramento (their ward did campouts at it).  After a lot of driving on a very narrow Forest Service Rd, a couple wrong stops, and a rather leisurely walk through very, very wet woods beyond locked gates, we did indeed find it.  Even in the rain and cold (lots of large patches of snow still on the ground), it made me want to go camping.

Most of the rest of our trip was just driving, but it was a delight to pick up our kids last night.  Keilana talked all the way home (and then for 30 minutes after we got home), telling us all about everything she did while we were gone.  Dylan didn't say much, but did do a lot of smiling and laughing.  Of course, the answer to every question I asked was either "No" or "go".  Always with a smile.  They are both napping now, recovering from their own rather eventful weekends, and I think we're all glad to be home again.  Even if its raining here, too.

Tag! You're it!

I've been away from the computer for a while, and just realized that Sam tagged me in her last blog, so here goes.

Here's how to play:  List 3 joys, 3 of your fears, 3 of your goals, 3 current obsessions/collections and 3 random, surprising facts about yourself.  At the end of your post, tag 5 more people.

3 Joys:

1.  Rainy days spent cuddled up inside reading books or watching movies.  There is something so cozy and delightful about an overcast sky and the steady drip of rain when you're all snuggled up in the warmth inside.  Same goes for quiet, still, snowy days.

2.  Being in the mountains--somehow the dirt and pine needles under foot and the smell of pine and fir trees and a crackling campfire always puts me immediately at ease.  Maybe its the lack of other smells, other sounds.  Walking in the woods makes my heart happy.

3.  A sleeping baby--whether my own or one I've momentarily borrowed.  The best sleep medicine in the world is holding a peaceful, sleeping baby on your chest and sitting in a comfortable rocking chair.  With a silent, cherubic little baby all cuddled up on me, I can't not be happy.

3 Fears

1.  Chipping teeth.  I'm always paranoid about the thought of running into things or tripping and chipping my teeth again.  I also have an irrational fear of my children running into coffee tables, bars on the playground, etc, and chipping their own teeth.

2.  Car wrecks.  Every time I see someone blow through a stoplight or stop sign or pass in a stupid way or place, it makes me edgy for the rest of the day.  I hate driving hwy 137 because it seems to be populated with the world's stupidest truck drivers and I am nearly hit by some idiotic  semi-truck driver on a fairly regular basis.

3.  Losing one of my children.   When we are in a public place, particularly if its crowded, I nearly panic if I suddenly lose sight of one of the kids even for a moment.  Flying with my kids if very nerve-wracking for me, but not because of them.  My mind starts racing with thoughts of who could be in the airport and where they might be headed, and I rarely take my hands off the kids during lay overs because of that.

3 Goals

1.  Read my scriptures daily.  I used to do it in the morning, perhaps I should try that again. I always think I'm going to do it after the kids go to bed and its nice and quiet in the house, but all too frequently I fail to because I'm so tired and brain dead by then.

2. Clean my blinds.  Because of our proximity to major roads, all the big trucks in and out across the road for the construction of McDermont, and the railroad and packing houses, we get a lot of dust.  My blinds desperately need to be cleaned, and it is one of the only chores I hate worse than laundry.  

3.  Get Dylan potty-trained by summer's end.  I don't know how this will be accomplished, since it's already almost June and he seems to have zero interest.  But somehow I will make it happen--I will figure out a way!

3 current obsessions/collections.

1. Hot Wheels.  It is difficult for me to pass a checkout stand and not purchase a small car or two.  Dylan's collection of cars steadily grows much bigger than it ever need be because he has passed his obsession on to me.

2. Trains.  Again, this is an adopted obsession.  At first I thought Doug's train fixation was kind of funny, but I'm afraid the longer it goes on, the more interested I become and on our weekend trip to Tahoe, we drove up to the Nevada State Railroad museum in Carson City at my request.  There is just something very cool about trains and railroads and they have a fascinating and colorful history.

3.  Orson Scott Card.  I've liked him since the first time I read Ender's Game as an 8th grader, but I've come to enjoy his fiction so much that lately its all I want to read (yes, me, the girl who always spoke of sci-fi with great disdain).  I also enjoy his online essays and reviews.  I wish I were intelligent enough to command the kind of skill that he does.  At any rate, I enjoy that he gets the wheels turning in my own head, even if they'll never turn as fast as the ones in his.

3 Random, surprising facts about myself

1.  I can curl the third toe of my right foot without curling any of my other toes.  It has been speculated that this is perhaps due to tendon damage incurred during multiple bad ankle sprains on that foot.  Can't say for sure, since I can't remember if I had this ability before the sprains or not.

2. I like both bugs and lizards, with the exceptions being cockroaches and horseflies.  This doesn't surprise many guys, but women often find it odd.  But I enjoy catching bugs and checking them out and photographing them.  I find the insect world endlessly fascinating.

3. I have a somewhat subversive sense of humor and often don't deal well with authority.  That is something about myself I have always tried to conceal, but its true.  I have trained myself to respect genuine, righteous authority and even to hold it sacred, but I still have very emotionally (and occasionally physically) violent response to what I perceive as unjust authority or abuse of authority.  

Ok, I tag. . .um. . .the Clark girls I suppose.  Looks like Sam already tagged everybody else I would tag.

Chef Keilana!

Keilana got this set (along with a cookbook) from my mom for her second birthday.  Its gotten a LOT of use since then.  Yesterday she came up stairs wearing the whole ensemble and said, "Mommy, I'm ready to cook sketti with you."  When I told her it wasn't quite time to make dinner yet, she said, "Cooking with Chef Pig Keilana!"  Her favorite TV show is Word World, and pig is always the Chef.  So now she seems to think that Chef anything must also involve Pig.

So lucky, so blessed

I was talking to a friend of mine yesterday who's having a particularly hard time in life right now.  After we talked for a couple of hours, she thanked me and said, "I knew I'd feel better if I could just talk to you; I knew you'd understand."  I was grateful for the trust and confidence she had in me--very few things bring me as much satisfaction and happiness as being able to meet another's emotional needs--but I'm not sure I do understand.  I have enough intellectual and emotional wherewithal to empathize on a somewhat intellectual level, but I'm not sure that means that I truly understand emotionally what it is she's going through.  I have experienced some of the same feelings and challenges, but at a much different age and stage of life, and that makes a big difference.

The fact is, I think my life is pretty easy.  Doug and I were talking the other night and I got off on this tangent about how I think I used to be nicer.  I used to, as my Grandma was fond of saying, "attract a lot of stray puppies".   My closer friends certainly didn't always understand why I put the time and energy into some of the people that I did.  I had lots of friends and acquaintances who called me "Sunshine" and one friend--my relationship with whom made no sense to anyone who knew both of us because our opinions and beliefs on pretty much everything were 180* apart--used to frequently tell me that I would "glow".  He somewhat begrudgingly admitted that that was a compliment.  At the time, that seemed odd to me because that was a point in my life that I viewed as rather difficult, but the more I thought about it, the more that made sense.  I struggled a lot and was challenged a lot, and so I had to rely very much on the Lord and made a great effort to do so--to pray consistently, to listen to the Spirit for answers and comfort, to do all the things I should always be doing but often fail to.  I had to either try harder or quit, so I tried harder.

Trials and challenges and heartaches have not been absent from my life the last five years.  In fact, many of the same ones I had 6 or 8 years ago are still very much a part of my reality.  But they are not the same kind of challenge they used to be.  Part of it is just growing up and maturing and learning how to handle disappointments and set backs and a broken heart, but much more of it is my marriage.  Having a successful and rewarding intimate relationship that is happy, balanced, consistent and reliable makes all my problems or trials in life seem much smaller.  Even when difficulties abound, it is relatively easy to be happy when I have someone in my life to love deeply and who loves me deeply, where there is mutual trust and respect.  Consequently, I don't have to be as consistent in all those other hugely important things in order to be happy and content, so I'm probably not as nice as I once was.  I don't think I'm as patient as I used to be.  

I'm spoiled.  This is simply a fact I have to accept about myself.  Sure, we live paycheck to paycheck and when we do anything fun its usually  because work is picking up the tab, but we do get to do all those fun things just the same.  My kids are busy, but relatively easy children.   I have a nice, air conditioned (thank goodness) home.  I have great friends.  When something does go wrong in life, I have a tremendous support system I can rely on, something many people don't have.  When the choice was sink or swim, of course I swam--who wouldn't?  But when the choice is swim or lounge on a float, I have a tendency to pick the latter, I'm afraid.  

Being blessed is not an excuse to be lazy--or lazier than I otherwise would be, anyway.  I express gratitude to my family and friends often, but I am probably not as diligent in thanking the Lord as I ought to be.  One of my favorite people at BYUH was Brother Kongaika, the president of student life at the university and a man I like to refer to as "the Tongan Santa Claus"--he had a great round belly and a huge, friendly smile that rarely left his face.  One afternoon, a group of about a half a dozen of us were working at the Stake Welfare Farm and he started joking about wards serving a free lunch after service projects.  "We work all day and lunch is 'free'!" he laughed.  Then he continued, "But that's how it is, really, right?  We work day in and day out but could never earn our reward.  We work all day, but in the end salvation is free.  The air we breathe is a gift."   

That is one of my fondest memories, because in a place like BYU-Hawaii where you are so busy and the Spirit dwells so frequently, it is becomes easy to take it for granted.  To take for granted that amongst 2300 students, more than 60 different countries and cultures are represented, and yet all those individuals live together peacefully, with love and respect for each other, genuine friendships.  It became easy to take for granted that I could see the temple from the front door of my apartment and walk there in literally less than two minutes.  To take for granted that if I needed bus fare to get to a doctor's appointment or we were out of food, even if we were broke that need would be met.  I was grateful for Brother Kongaika's reminder, because moments earlier I had only been weeding a taro patch and salivating over the ripe mangos hanging in front of me, but as soon as he said it, I was doing something much more important--I was serving the Lord, trying to give back at best a penny to a debt I never can repay.  And because of his reminder, I did so with a grateful heart.  I was about six months pregnant with Keilana at that point, so a few years have passed now, and when I stopped to think about it, I marvel at how blessed we have been. And I am grateful.

Another list. . .

I'm grateful for:

*Keilana's proclivity for ditching her shoes, like myself and my father before me.

*swimming pools (104 in May? you've got to be kidding me)

*health insurance

*finding cute clothes on killer clearance deals

*flip flops and Crocs

*hand-me-downs

*Doctors who are good at what they do and don't talk to me like I'm an idiot

*Daisies

*Clean floors

*Double strollers

*Pledge--oh how it makes my piano shine!

*City parks

*Good children's books

*Pictures of home

*the internet (thank you, Mr. Gore!)

*stupid movies that make me laugh

*the smell of jasmine on a warm night

*mountains

*tweezers

*oak trees

*baby wipes

*disposable diapers

*good books (and time to read them)

*people who have good senses of humor about themselves

*a fun job

*Keilana's verbal skills

*kittens

*latex gloves (for keeping my hands free of kitten poop!)

*clean drinking water

*air conditioning

*solar panels

*Dylan's bellybutton obsession

*free furniture (thanks for the mattress, Christa!)

*girly little girl stuff

*good friends, near and far

The perils of a new bed

Last week we finally got Keilana a new bed. . .well, I guess technically I should say we got her on a real mattress, since I haven't actually put up the bed yet.  Anyway, we got her on a twin bed, so i finally took our crib down for the first time in nearly 4 years and put Dylan in the toddler bed.  For the most part, its been a very easy transition, as he loves it (especially since there's a big race car on the top) and is happy to sleep there.  Last night Doug and I were sitting downstairs talking when we heard a tremendous THUD! right above us.  When I went to check on Dylan, sure enough he had fallen out of bed.  However, he didn't seem to mind.  When I picked him up to put him back in bed, he sat up enough to pull his quilt up and went right back to sleep.  Its nice to have at least one good sleeper in the family! 

Bed Bugs

Amazing what a good nights rest will do!  Dylan slept all night last night and Keilana stayed in her own bed all night, so I actually slept and so did they.  We all woke up much happier and ready to play.  While Doug was showering, they decided they wanted to snuggle up together in Keilana's bed, and they looked so cute, I couldn't help but take a few pictures.