For Week 10 and perhaps our final summer adventure with kids for 2010, we went local, to the Tualatin Hills Parks & Recreation Nature Park outside of Beaverton. We asked another mom and her son, who is the same age as my twins, to join us for this trek trying something new outdoors. The  222-acre wildlife preserve features meadows, evergreen and deciduous trees,  creeks, wetlands, and ponds, as noted on their website

But, as often is the case, it’s what not only the things listed on the  website that intrigues the kids. It’s things like spotting snakes that move beside the trail that the boys just have to have chase after to try to catch. It’s pointing out spider webs that look like tents – and as my mom friend Liz pointed out – are probably actually caterpillar tents. And for the kids, it’s seeing branches that hang over the trail that have created a natural  arch and  realizing they are the perfect place to jump up and hang from.  

Now that is adventure.

I never want it to end.

So, my youngest was having some days  camping with his grand parents and my twins had said they have never been to Seattle. We were trying to find a place to go, an adventure, with just the twins and me.  I was feeling a bit sad that summer is close to over and I wanted to get away on an adventure farther than we had been this summer, which had  been Timothy Lake.

After looking into places three to four hours away in Oregon, I also got my twins involved in the search. I had a few things to finish for the classes I begin teaching at Multnomah Monday, but I needed this  time with my twins. I needed the adventure. I had promised them a get away  and I was  really looking forward to time  with my sweet boys.

It was just a mention by Mickael Josef that he had never been to 
Seattle before that sparked my encouragement of that idea. One  of the  twins’  friends is  moving to Seattle this summer   and the city intrigued him. That was all it took.  As I was working on some last minute items for my class preparation at  Multnomah, I encouraged my twins to look up places  to stay near Seattle.  Jacuzzi was one for sure amenity. Our cousin was not in town.

Tuesday we took off mid day on our Seattle  adventure, and it was so much fun to hang with my sweet 12 year olds. To see them navigating me on the roads, to see them find the hotel they had discovered online. To hear them tell me things they wanted to do on our  Seattle adventure. One thing was clear-visit Safeco Baseball stadium, which surprised me since we are not a big baseball family.
But.  First things  first. The Space Needle.

At  Sunset. First   off, having   my  twins  help  plan the two days we would be away. And getting the hotel room first was important  to them. Then, it was the Space  Needle, but I missed a turn off. We did make it just after sunset.

Wow,  the view of Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula. The many people there from so many countries. The time with just my boys, who will be in seventh grade this fall.

The next day we had a whirlwind of a day touring Seattle and what was especially neat was my boys  helping make the decisions as to what new experience in Seattle they wanted to live out. They noted Safeco baseball field so we made the effort to get there for a tour of where the Seattle Mariners play. I wanted to be sure to go to Pikes Place Market and the Science Fiction Museum intrigued my boys. And, riding the shuttle was a hit.

The trip marked the almost end of summer, the almost end of them being children before they turn teenagers, the continued adventure with my kids this summer. When I told my daughter about the adventure to Seattle, she noted that normally I do not do cities for adventures. I have emphasized outdoors and nature a lot when it comes to adventure but in the end it is about discovering something new, having time together away from the ordinary, and being together. That is adventure, which I  love to be deliberate about with my kids.

 http://www.cityofseattle.net/html/visitor/

 When I asked my twins what they wanted to do for this week’s adventure, they said hang with their cousins. But, I wanted to go to a new place, to adventure out. So we did what we often do–combine ideas. I told my sister that I wanted to get together and go someplace outdoors to  let the cousins run. So, we went to a new (to me) park called Commonwealth Lake Park, which is near my nephew’s new house in Beaverton. It is such a delight to watch the cousins walk together and chatter and share and run and throw rocks into the lake and climb fences and climb the play structure and just enjoy a summer day together at a park. It is more of a city park but adventure happens in many locations.

When we returned to my sister’s house, the older cousins wanted to play Axis and Allies board game while the younger cousins played the game Trouble. I love board games. Anything to get away from electronics!

And, hearing both of my twins, individually, say to me in some form or other, the words, “Mom, don’t leave early, you are what make this time fun.” (I was leaving a couple of days early with our older son Ryan to help him prepare for returning to George Fox as a Resident Assistant.)

Okay, so this was our adventure of the week, our tradition of returning each summer to Timothy Lake, and it is the only family vacation we will have and we made it as adventuresome as possible. Just being in nature on a lake with my sweet boys is adventure enough for me.

But those values fly in the face of the recent news story about a JetBlue flight attendant who quit on the job, literally, by sliding down the chute of the airplane after spouting profanity at a passenger he was fed up with.

Now, pop culture America is calling him a hero? For representing the working class? That is not a hero in my books.

It goes back to our general trend in society where people have to always be right and their pride gets in the way. This flight attendant has to realize that he is in a customer service field, and dealing with passengers who are grumpy is part of the job. Sure, it cannot be easy, but neither are hundreds of other jobs out there.

 Other people are not sliding down an escape chute to get away from their work situations. Instead, they work day in and day out to support their families. They are the real heros.  

In ouI am not sure what is worse. His actions, or that he is being called a hero for what he did.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_upshot/20100810/bs_yblog_upshot/rogue-jetblue-flight-attendant-being-hailed-as-a-modern-american-working-class-hero

Finally, we made it happen — to hike up to the top of Saddle Mountain. My 18-year-0ld son Ryan and his friend Jon and his mom and I have talked about going on a mom-son hike for a quite some time. Jon and Ryan have been friends since they were in my 3-year-old Sunday School class together at Rolling Hills, and they were in the same Boy Scout troop (West  Linn Troop 149) and they are  both are Eagle Scouts!

I so want to continue connecting with my boys, and as they get older you have to be more deliberate about finding things to do. The outdoors is my favorite activity to share with my children.

We met Jon and Joanne at the Oregon City Shopping Center and carpooled together in our jeep. Great conversation and fellowship and camaraderie. When we arrived at the entry to Saddle Mountain, it was drizzling a bit. Joanne had told me this was a possibility, though I did not bring a wind breaker. It is a 7 mile drive in to the trail head along a bumpy road. There were so many different groups getting ready to hike to the top of Saddle Mountain, which, on a nice day, I am told, has breathtaking views. It was nice that none of us had been there before, which makes for more of an adventure.

We snapped a photo at the sign before beginning the trek up 2 1/2 miles. It was a bit more drizzly and very foggy as we made our way up the rocky hill. We saw wildflowers and neat plants and dense fog and large bolders lots of groups of people hiking to the top of this landmark along the Oregon Coast. It is a difficult hike and will get any one’s heart rate up. The boys went ahead of us moms for much of it but would wait at various points for their moms! 

At the top, we ate lunch and the fog parted for us a couple of times to give us a view. It began raining a bit more but that was okay. I kept telling the boys how much I am loving this adventure with them. These college boys of ours. Joanne and I are already talking about our next hike.

Info on Saddle Mountain:

http://oregonstateparks.wordpress.com/2010/07/21/saddle-mountain-a-north-coast-landmark-hiking-challenge/

For our Week 6 adventure, my three youngest boys and I drove  to Beacon Rock, which Micki had hiked up with his class in fourth grade when Mr. Munoz was his teacher. On the way, I saw a sign for the Steigerwald Lake Wildlife Refuge, so I said to the kids that I would like to see what this was like. Two of my three boys said “No, Mom,” but my youngest said yes and I really wanted to stop. That is part of what adventure is to me — discovering new places along the way and not being so schedule-bound.

At the  Wildlife Refuge we walked along the trail looking for any animals or birds we could find. The plants were beautiful and the kids were just ready to get to Beacon Rock.  http://www.fws.gov/ridgefieldrefuges/steigerwaldlake/

Off then to Beacon Rock. It was a 25 minute hike up the steep slope to arrive at the top of the Rock that overlooks the Columbia Gorge. The boys practically ran up that hill as they always like to see who can be first and who gets to lead.  I love that their enthusiasm.

At the top of Beacon Rock the view was spectacular of the Columbia Gorge and River. We met another  mom of five kids who felt so good about hiking to the top of Beacon Rock with two of her kids and her husband. She had done the hike years ago while in school. She said she has been losing weight and could not have done this hike a few weeks ago. We snapped pictures and exchanged contact info. I told her I would send her a photograph if she emails me. Their name is Otto. We found out they are also believers.

On our way home, we stopped at a market where the twins wanted to look for Zippo lighters, which their big brother has. They are excited to now have their own. I also bought hydrogen peroxide to clean up the wound from my fall. No, I did not fall at Beacon Rock but by the bathrooms!

Here is info about our adventure:

http://www.parks.wa.gov/parks/?selectedpark=Beacon%20Rock

My 7-year-old over the phone, his darling pitched voiced, “Hi Mommy,” melts my heart. I can picture him there in our home, with his part-toothless and part grown-up-teeth smile and his piercing deep brown eyes and his brown somewhat sun-bleached hair,  uttering those most beautiful words in the world, ”Mommy.“ I  think about returning home  tomorrow and opening the front door and my brown-eyed almost second grader melting into my arms saying, “Mommy’s home. Mommy’s home!”

I think about that little voice, that voice that changes at some point in the growing up process of our children. There is a certain moment, and you cannot pinpoint when that will happen, but one day you just realize that the voice is not so little any more. It has altered. It is more grown up. It is not a little 7-year-old anymore. Maybe it is at the same time that they do not dash as quickly to the door when you return home as they used to.

My kids leave me messages on my voicemail on my cell phone, and I just do not have the heart to erase their sweet little voices. So, I keep their little messages on my voicemail, and when my cell phone asks me if I want to save the messages in the archives or erase them, I always press the number 9, which means to save it. I do not have the heart to erase their sweet voices. And I will hear again, over and over, the most beautiful word, “Mommy.”

It is a reminder that indeed, right now, I am their world.

And they are mine.

And it is a record of the gift of motherhood and parenting.

And I am blessed.

and her son to join me and my three (younger) boys. We ended up at Eagle Fern Park and the boys just loved it. Our original destination was to head back to Salmon  Creek but it was too far for Christine as she had to get back by a certain time. We started heading instead toward McIver Park, but then saw a sign in Estacada for Eagle Fern Park and I said, “Do you want to see what this is like?” and my friend said sure. McIver is nice but I wanted to find a new location. 

The park is located on the Eagle Creek, which the boys wanted to play in right away. But Christine and I suggested first hiking, then playing in the water. We found a trail after crossing this rickety bridge and the boys bounced on it and laughed and giggled. The trail offered a place to go uphill — the sign said Uneven Trail which I always like to opt for. Getting out of the box, coloring outside the lines, taking the backroads. I talk to my kids about this in life and in their walks with God. It may be harder and it may be uphill and there may be more spider webs, but there are sticks to combat those. . . It is about the adventure. . .

And part of the adventure for me is listening to the conversation of the boys as we thrashed through bushes and pushed away spider webs and I saw the boys holding sticks and running and chasing one another.  . . .Getting kids outside is so necessary. I need it too.

We got to the creek next and the boys just wanted to get into the water.  They were trying to catch fish and other creatures in the water and they got excited after each creepy crawly thing they saw. “This is such a good day, Mom,” we heard. I agree.

http://www.co.clackamas.or.us/parks/eaglefern.htm

National Forest Campground to catch the trailhead.   We first ate lunch near the river, and then made our way to the upper side of the trail, looking for the path that goes along the river. I was so happy that Ryan  joined us for this adventure. He had had his wisdom teeth out the Friday before, so I was surprised by his eagerness to tag along with us!

For the first part of the hike, we climbed up hill for over 30 minutes, getting quite the workout, before we realized we were not on the trail that would go along Salmon River. After sweating and climbing for some time, we turned around. It was a very hot day and the kids just wanted to get to the river to cool off.

We returned to the campground and found the river. The kids loved splashing in the cold water. It was so delightful listening to the conversation of the kids as they looked for animals in the water. First, Augustin thought he saw a leech, which brought back memories of Yellowstone Park from last summer and Stefan having leeches on his leg while swimming in the water.

Later, Chris discovered the trail that worked its way along the river and we decided to wait for that adventure until next time.

Link to the Old Salmon River Trailhead: http://web.oregon.com/hiking/salmon_river.cfm

Links to the campground: http://www.publiclands.org/explore/site.php?plicstate=OR&id=3781 

http://www.forestcamping.com/dow/pacficnw/mthcmp.htm