Fort Anderson...

For the love of memories...and for the love of nature, I'm creating this super long post with loads of pictures.  When we first moved to Danville we were amazed at all the wonderful and easily accessible hiking trails in our area.  One of our very first hikes was up to a stand of trees the kids named "Fort Anderson".  We have made the trip up to Fort Anderson a few times over the years but mostly, we love to spot Fort Anderson from all over the valley as we go about our days.  

The hills are alive and green right now (thanks to some spring showers last month) and we have nothing but time on our hands (thanks to the shut down) so we decided it was time for another trip up to Fort Anderson.  As we started our hike I commented to Will how amazing it was that the first time we took this hike our kids were very little (and we didn't even have Colter) and now we have teenagers!  

The kids were total hiking pros with no complaints and lots of nice conversation.

The views were so stunning!  I always want to go for a hike when the hills are green.  Sometimes that green comes with trails that are so muddy your shoes grow as you hike or that comes with exploding sneezes.  This time we lucked out, not only were the trails dry and our allergies in control BUT the hills were popping with poppies! 

Fort Anderson did not disappoint!  This stand of trees gets a lot of water from fog rolling over the hills in the morning and evening.  The trees are tightly packed together with big rocks on the ground.  The rocks and tree branches are covered in thick green moss.  It is always shady, always windy, and always a welcome resting spot after the climb. 

The views were pretty rad too.  Everything is so green!  It was also such a nice treat to see all of the poppies out.  I don't think we've ever had a springtime hike with so many poppies out. 

The wind was pretty serious at the top of the trail.  Poor Clare was freezing...

July 9th, 2011

And now for the tale of our first trip up to Fort Anderson.  It was in July so everything was brown and dead...we call it "golden".  I don't remember why we picked this hike but we loved it!  

The kids liked making wishes on dandelions and asked for pictures of them blowing on the seed puffs.

You can see the stand of trees behind Wyatt up at the top of the hill in that picture and in the two below. 

I remember we decided to take a short cut and hike directly up the hill to Fort Anderson.  The climb got us all hot and sweaty.  We were all thankful for the shade and wind at the top.  We were not thankful for all the burs and weeds that filled our socks and shoes from the grass through the short cut. 

Adell spent the hike up in the baby backpack helping Will get a real workout.  She wanted to walk for more of the hike down. 

Wyatt and Lorien nicknamed themselves the "Trail Blazers" and lead the way across the ridge line. 

Clare's little 5-year-old legs got tired so Will put Clare in the baby backpack and Adell on his shoulders making his hike down even more of a workout!

We fell in love with the views.  We were excited to have hiking options close to home.  Our kids started developing strength and stamina and have been great hikers ever since.  

More of the same...every day is the same...

What has been happening these last two weeks?  It is still a lot of the same...groundhogs day if you will.  We had an uneventful spring break where the only difference in our regular routine was no school work.  Our family signed up to help fill food orders at a local food bank.  Clare and Wyatt each took a turn to come help at the storehouse. 

Will has been asking me to cut his hair for a week or more now.  I do not like cutting his hair.  I don't know how to cut hair and his hair is a little bit weird.  So we spent a slightly tense 20 minutes with him telling me exactly what to do and me trying not to mess it up...too badly.  Will's hair cut turned out just fine. 

Colter and Adell are getting outside more and more.  We had some warm weather this last week and we all loved it...well, maybe Clare and Wyatt didn't notice since they are happy in their room. 

School has been interesting.  Our kids are not trying to go above and beyond on anything and neither is our school district.  Thankfully, everyone is being very understanding of the weirdness of the situation.  Colter requires the most supervision.  He just can't stay focused on his own.  Adell gets up and gets right to work on her school work.  Clare and Wyatt sleep in for a good long time and then have to be reminded to get school done.  It is a mixed bag for sure.  Friday when Colter was working he remembered a bunch of details from a story he read on Wednesday and was able to complete an assignment really quickly.  I was impressed and said so his response: "I'm deadly with my learning skills." 

Slow-mo

This was our third week of social distancing/isolation/safer at home/quarantine/COVID 19 keep away.  Life has slowed down so much!  Here are my highs and lows.

High: working out via long walks around my neighborhood during peak spring flower show time.  The hills are bright green and everyone has blooming trees/flowers/bushes in their yards.  It is beautiful!  I'm also getting some good yoga time in.

Low: not being able to go to the gym.  I miss my Orange Theory workouts so much!  I miss my gym people.  I miss the rigor of the workouts.  I miss the accountability of scheduled classes.

Highs: discovering new toys and getting into imagination play again.  

Lows: screen time, screen time, screen time and fighting.  

Highs: finding reasons to get out of the house that don't involve seeing other people.  Adell and I went to get a soda and milkshake at Circle K and then took a LONG drive together.  We talked about death...

Lows: not being able to go to the beach, city, parks, playgrounds, or see friends...ever.  I also really miss having the house to myself for a few hours every day.  There is a person in every room of our house every minute of the day.  

Highs: Zoom, Google Hangouts, Facetime, Marco Polo, etc. as a way to see friends and participate in school or dance classes.  Marco Polo has been such a social blessing for me especially!  

Lows: overwhelmed Momma trying to make all this technology run smoothly for all the people who need it.  For example, at 10:00 Friday morning, Wyatt had a seminary meeting, Adell had a school band video call, and Colter had a zoom meeting with his First-grade class.  We went to the google classroom by mistake for Adell's meeting and she missed the whole thing.  Clare can dance for hours in the living room on classes and we are always making too much noise for her.  Wyatt is the most tech-savvy and takes care of himself, thank heavens!

Highs: no schedule!

Lows: trying to create a schedule.  On Thursday of our first week of online learning, Colter asked specifically for a schedule that included recess and lunchtimes.  I created a schedule, as requested, and we never stick to it. 

Highs: baking, and eating so many delicious treats

Lows: none...there might be a low in a few weeks when the numbers on the scale are higher than we'd like but that would make the low a high...right?

We had sloppy joes with homemade rolls one night.  Colter kept calling them "slappy hoes".  We kept on giggling.  He finally asked what was so funny...I had to explain the different meanings of the word "hoe/ho".

Highs: April Fools pranks.

Lows: April Fools pranks.  I did my classic meatloaf cupcakes.  Everyone except Colter remembered the joke.  This is probably the last time I can do it.  It was still fun.  You can see my 2010 attempt here and my 2014 attempt here...wait...I didn't blog about my attempt in 2014!  Here are the cupcakes from this year, followed by 2014.

 Highs: hitting growth milestones like losing teeth.  Adell lost one tooth the first weekend of social distancing, followed by Colter.  One morning last week, Adell shot her second loose tooth out with a nerf gun.  Colter has two more wiggly teeth waiting to come out.

Lows: the tooth fairy still delivers s/he is not following social distancing rules!

Highs: we are attempting to do some of our own homeschooling.  We are following some lessons from a blog called Travels with the Crew and each week we are supposed to learn about two different countries.  The first week was Japan and Russia.

Lows: let's face the music here...I am terrible at following through with these lessons!  We are past the third week of "homeschool" and I've done Japan but had Russia looming over my head.  Poor Adell asks every day if we are going to do our Russia lesson.  We finally got to the lesson and painting the nesting dolls this week.  Ugh...

Colter did not care about painting his nesting dolls...which was awesome because I really wanted to paint a set and didn't order enough for me to do so.  Once Colter was out, I had a set!

 Highs: time to get house projects done!

Lows: finding the motivation to start or finish a house project.  I did get all the handles on the kitchen cupboards updated!

BEFORE

AFTER

Highs: General Conference

Lows: tummy aches from too much bingo candy.  Remind me at April General Conference time to stick with M&Ms, Skittles, and other tiny candies.