Milking Time

Milking time is a special time.  Special for the cow, the observers, the milker and the expectant milk drinkers.  Back when I was a young girl, milking was a great treat.  A chance to go to the barn with the big kids.  To watch and listen to the milking machines and their constant rhythm.  To watch as the cows fell into line, heads into the stalls for a little grain while the milking machine did its work.  To be amazed at how quickly the machine filled with the warm milk. 

Although time has passed, the milking hasn't changed.  Nancy in her red shirt headed out to the barn with her bucket of water.  The cows know their part and were waiting.  Another generation of children watched with awe as the process began.  

Nancy explained the process to the kids, just as she had so many times in the past to us when we would sit on the fence in the back of the milking barn.  

And when the milking is complete, always remember to thank the cow.  

Then empty the milking machine.

 A fun part of the milking process.  Feeling the suction of the milking machine. 

 Back to business.  Time to clean everything up.  

The milking machine can suck up the clean water just as well as the milk! 

(Might be an interesting note at this point to mention that since nursing, and having to pump from time to time, I've gained a much greater appreciation for the life of a milk cow!)

Buddy ole' pal

It's wonderful how quickly children make friends.  Austin and Duncan played for three days as though they'd known each other all their lives.  Each time I brought out the camera to capture them playing, the two of them would either pose or hug each other!

He's got skills

Where did they learn such skills? 

Finally we arrived!

The purpose of our trip was to revisit the farm in Banks.  The farm where we spent so many summers growing up.  The farm that held so many childhood memories.

So, after a day and a half of adventures and traveling, our true adventure began!

We had stopped at the bottom of the hill.  We changed into our red shirts.  We gave the kids the age old, 'behave yourselves lecture'.  Then we drove up the hill.

Before we knew it we were at the top.  We'd arrived.  The real adventure was about to begin.  How could it really have been so many years since we'd made that drive.  Nancy has a new house.  It was a little odd to pull in to a driveway on the hill other than the one after the mailbox.

Her new house has an incredible view of the valley.  With windows along the entire one side of the house, she is able to completely take advantage of the gorgeous views. 

Her house and it's current residents, Oneta, Amber, Matt, Austin, Jacob and little Christian were open and inviting.  The kids stayed around long enough for some introductions and a quick lesson on where the boundaries were and then they were off.  Exploring, playing and running amok.  They discovered very quickly the joys of country life.

The kids had a blast!

They particularly enjoyed careening around the house and down the hill in a little red wagon...




It was best that Mummy's didn't watch.  Anytime I did, I made safety suggestions.  It was just better not to hang around and watch.  In three fun filled careening days, only one skinned knee and one scraped hand was reported.

Speculations

We were so close.  Things were beginning to look familiar, while also looking different.  I was bigger, things were smaller kind of different.  Some things were worn, older and gone.  Some things were over grown.  The town of Banks had definitely grown.  It was always a tiny town and still is by many standards.  It's just as quaint as ever though.  We drove through town... (a minutes drive) and then headed to the mountain.  Growing up it was a mountain.  Grandpa lived on top of a mountain we always said.  I'd have to say now that Nancy lives on top of a big hill.  Perspective is an interesting thing.

As we approached the turn onto the dirt road that would take us up the old familiar hill, we noticed a white VW beetle pulled off to the side of the road.  That really isn't too unusual.  Channa and family being in the VW autoparts restoration business and the kids loving to play spot the VW beetle games.  So as typically occurs, we heard the following, which started out as normal as any day spotting a VW beetle... and then...

"White beetle.  
Old style.  
Roof rack.  
New fenders.  
Needs a paint job.  
No clothes(term for a headlight cover or rag top or soft cover convertible) or special features.  
Naked guy in it taking pictures.
Cereal boxes instead of a windshield!"

"WHAT?"

We pulled off ourselves shortly after that.  We had been traveling for almost 2 days and planned to arrive in clean red shirts.  We remember Aunt Nancy always wearing a red t-shirt to go to the barn.  We pulled over to fish out the red shirts and change before heading up the hill. 

We began to speculate about why there was a naked man in a beetle on the side of the road. 

Was he like us changing his clothes before heading to an old relative's place?  He likely thought it was an out of the way quiet road like we did. 

Was he living in his car and had done his laundry that morning and just needed to be left alone while his clothes dried?  We didn't notice any clothes drying anywhere though.

Was he a naturalist, taking photographs of nature, au natural?

Why did he have the cereal boxes in the windshield?  Was it to give him extra privacy since he was naked?  Was it to assist him somehow in his photography?

Did he have to escape a burning building in the middle of the night and now he's too ashamed to be seen anywhere because he has no clothes?

Did he donate all his clothes and then think better of it after he realised he was naked?

Was he completely naked?  Perhaps just the lack of a shirt made us jump to conclusions. 

Perhaps it wasn't a camera afterall... we didn't take too long a look at all the details... Perhaps they were binoculaurs. 

Perhaps he had spotted a rare bird and he was so fascinated and overheated with excitement that he had shed his clothes to unemcumber himself while watching the birds...

Perhaps we shall never know the who, what, why and how's of the situation.  But we enjoyed speculating.

The Island of Sodor

Traveling with some Thomas the Train fanatics along the Columbia River turned simple factories into the magical Island of Sodor.  We saw troublesome trucks, diesels, barges tunnels and bridges.  All of which fit right in to the Island of Sodor theme. 

Hats R us!

We didn't end up taking the time to visit this museum.  The lady at the front desk said it was an afternoon of fun.   She commented that we all had nice hats.  We think so too.  It was also $4.00 for each child and $8.00 for Caleb, Channa and I each.  We didn't wish to spend either the time nor the money at this point.  So instead we made wishes in their cool fountain out front.  We discussed our thoughts on why the trees in the area all seemed to lean to one side and have branches growing predominately on only one side.  Then we continued on our trip. 

Why?

Why is it that the fine for not wearing your seatbelt fluctuates between $94.00 and $97.00, but the fine for littering is $6250.00.

Ok... don't care.. more importantly..
Why is the fine so vastly different?  Why is littering fined so much higher?

Our take... if you don't buckle up, you are endangering only yourself.  If you litter you are ruining the world for everyone else.  Maybe you have to pay more when it affects more?

The Perfect Rest Area

Obviously, Duncan wasn't the only one who played on the beach.  All the kids were there.  But this was just another beach to the rest of them.  Another awesome beach to play on, even if it was only for 15 minutes.  I will concede that a beach is a lot of fun for a child.  It's also fairly simple to keep track of eight children at a beach... maybe because we were the only ones there though.  I won't be too rash and make any claims that I can't keep.

Miles happily shared that he'd found some beach slime.  I determined another reason I'm not a fan of the beach, but out loud I said.... 'cool for you dude.'

While playing on the beach, we heard the clang, clang, clang of a train signal.  A train was coming from somewhere.  The kids saw it first.  It was coming right along the edge of the rest area.  The engineer saw the kids all waving and he blew the whistle a few times and waved back.  um... LOUD!!

And if that wasn't enough.  Another train went past on the other tracks maybe 2 minutes later.  This train also blew it's whistle. 

Lunch was ready.  After eating, the kids were sent to use the potties while all the food was cleared up.  There was an old abandoned train car on the edge of the park.  I think it was some kind of memorial but we were too busy climbing all over and under it to read about it. 

This was not our destination however.  It had it all.  A beach, trains that passed by and whistled and trains for exploring.  A park, a grassy area with a picnic table for lunching, restrooms and running water.  We still had a few hours of road to travel.  So we bid a fond farewell to our favourite rest stop and continued on our trip.

Don't call child services...

Whittaker wasn't completely ignored at our beach stop.  

After plunking him down and capturing Duncan's excitement.  I did check on him.  He's often well cared for without me though.

Derek is very conscientious about being sure that Whittaker is included.  It's sort of a check on Whittaker, report to Nova, then off to do his own thing, then repeat in a few minutes. 

Sarah is also good about including Whittaker in experiences.  

She's not nearly as concerned about sand, wet clothes and letting him get dirty before going back into his car seat for the rest of the week as I am either.  She actually had the gall to say to me.  "Stop worrying..  He'll clean up."

 

He did find some enjoyment all on his own as well.  

A Beach!

Unexpected moments are just that, unexpected.  As such, one can not be prepared for them.
After seeing a HUGE windfarm, we spontaneously decided to see if by taking the next exit we could drive up closer to them so the kids could truly see how MASSIVE they really were.  Spontaneity continued to be the name of the game.  As we took the exit and we wound down a fairly long and winding frontage road we found ourselves confronted with an idyllic little park area instead of a wind farm.  It was as good a time as any for some lunch.

The kids headed to the playground, Channa dug through the coolers for the meal and I sat in the front seat preparing to nurse Whittaker.

Mummy come quick.

Nova, you better grab your camera.

I was a little slow.  I was trying to keep Whittaker focused on the task at hand and he was very distracted with all the insistence that I come quickly with the camera.  Then it all began to make sense.  Duncan was beside himself with joy. 

In order to understand, you must know that about a year or more ago Duncan realised that he was the only child in our group that had never been to a beach.  There were pictures of Caleb, Sarah and even Miles as a toddler.  Kenzie, Cooper and Derek had just returned from yet another trip to the beach, not to mention they've been to beaches on both the Pacific and the Atlantic.  Duncan has a fabulous sandbox in the backyard.  But knowing that he'd never been to a beach was really starting to get to him.   From time to time, Grandma sends the kids emails.  Each year she sends the sandcastle competition entries for the kids to be amazed by.  This became torment.  During one of my prenatal visits for Whittaker, he found a picture of a family enjoying a day at the beach building a sandcastle.  He asked the Dr. if he could take that home.  He carefully tore out the page and it has been on our fridge door ever since.  This is the sandcastle he intends to build.

The plan is to go at the end of this summer to visit Grandma's beach.  We haven't been in 8 years.  Duncan will be almost 7 years old.  The passports arrived while we were in Oregon.  It's finally official.

So.  When the excitement began to make sense at the little idyllic rest area in Arlington, OR, by the edge of the Columbia River, I also knew I needed to grab my camera and see how Duncan was feeling.

Instead of rushing to the water's edge like all the experienced beach goers, he was running back to me.  He could barely get his sentences out he was so excited.

"There's a beach!  We didn't know we would find a beach!  It's real!  Can I take my shoes off?!  A beach!!"

I was running along behind him trying not to drop Whittaker, trying to turn on the camera, wishing that the sound worked on the video mode so I could catch his excitement and wishing with as much excitement as he had for finding a beach, that I had been a little more prepared.  There are few things that I dislike.  Beaches are one of them.  I do my best not to influence my children.  I know that they are delightful play place and can be a dream come true... but .... there's a lot of sand involved.  I don't like gritty.  I just wasn't prepared to deal with sand on my feet and then continue traveling.  I was a good girl.  This was Duncan's moment.  I needed to put aside my own idiosyncrasies and be excited with him... to take his picture and encourage him.  So...

I did this with Whittaker, so that I could take photos better.

 No blanket.  I didn't remove his clothes so they would stay clean.  I didn't worry about him trying to eat the sand.  I didn't even look back... He was far from the water's edge in the shade and I had a boy's excitement to capture.  

Thrilled that I said he could take his sandals off.  He suggested I take mine off also.  I declined. 

The whole time he was still saying, "I didn't know we were going to find a beach!"

He walked briskly down to the water's edge. 

After only a few moments, he had wiggled his toes in the wet sand and waded in the water's edge, he came running back towards me.  Exclaiming again to Whittaker and I, "A BEACH!!!"

I sent him back to enjoy the beach while we were here.  Go have some fun!

He ran along the shore.

He dug a trench with his hands for the water to fill. 

He waded in the water.  He reached in to feel the seaweed and the smooth stones. 

He ran down the shore to see the other boys.  He watched the ducks.

  

He tossed a rock to see it kerplunk.

 

He threw a handful of wet sand to see it make ripples across the water.

He got mucky along with the others and had a great time. 

It did not satisfy his desire for a beach.  Instead it intensified it.  He wishes every morning that it was time to go to the trip to the beach.  He has asked to see his passport over and over.  It's like his ticket to his dream come true and now he's had a peek and loved it.

We stayed at the rest area playing at the 'beach', for about 15 minutes.  Then we made them wash up and come eat. 

Wind Energy

Twelve years ago on another vacation to TX, we were on the look out for 'molino de vientos' (wind mills).  We were excited to find them.  They were often old rickety ones or decorative pieces in peoples yards. 

Not so this trip.  This time... wind mills were only all to easy to spot.  Hundreds of them.  Wind farms.  Only they're new and sleek and streamlined. 

Even better than seeing wind mills and wind farms... was seeing parts of them being transported along the same roadways as we were traveling.  We saw, blades, poles and generators on flatbeds going by.  Seeing how large just one part of the wind mill was on a flat bed really helped us to understand how big one put together must be. 

Explanations, en route

*Why don't we have a cool phone like this... it's connected to the wall and everything? (asked by Duncan)

Why did they give us a bible in the motel room? (asked by Mackenzie)

Because these are old fashioned phones, I remember when we finally got a cool new one like that... there used to be even older ones.
There are always bibles in motel rooms.   It's so there will always be something to read.

*What are those men on the truck doing? (asked by the kids as we loaded for the second day of travel)

They are advertising a new cool razor that apparently can shave your entire body.. like, in case you're an olympic swimmer, you know?

*How many kids you got in this van?
They're all different ages.  What kind of group is this? (asked my not less than 3 little old men carrying or walking their itty bitty dogs)

Just our kids.

*Mummy... why were you taking a picture of yourself in the motel parking lot?  Why did you take a picture of... nothing? (asked by the kids when I hopped back into the van and we finally left the motel that morning)

I'm reminiscing.  Almost 20 years ago, I stayed at this same motel on our move to TX, and I took photos in the same place back then.  It was just interesting to me that not much had changed.. just me!

Whittaker Travels

We were unsure how Whittaker would travel.  We were pleasantly surprised for most of the trip.  He was willing to play with his neighbours and eat snacks and nurse when we stopped.  He didn't nap a whole lot.  As we went over the mountain passes, he fussed a little more than we had anticipated.  We will definitely look into his ears with the Dr. when we return home.

However the sleeping at night was the problem.  Actually the lack of sleeping at night!  He missed his bed.  He simply would not give in and go to sleep.  We checked in to the motel after 10 pm.  At midnight, both Channa and I had taken turns bouncing him.  Channa finally went to sleep since she would have to drive again in the morning and I continued to bounce.  After a while I was able to sit on the floor while still semi-bouncing him and I dozed with my head against the foot of the bed.  Once he was in a deep sleep I laid him on a blanket on the floor.  He slept until 4 am.  I nursed and bounced and then gave up.  It was only 5:30 am, and the other 8 travelers were still sleeping all over the motel.

The only place I could go was the bathroom.  So we did.  There's a surprising number of things to play with in a motel bathroom at 5:30am; toilet paper wrapped in noisy paper, plastic cups that crackle, cloths that can be tossed about and make great peek-a-boo toys and a wrapped bar of soap is fabulous for putting in and out of one of the cups and of course at that hour, Mummy lets you shred the toilet paper.

I finally decided to be productive since he was content.  I hopped in the shower and left the door open so I could keep an eye on him.  He didn't seem to mind the steamed up room at all.  I think he actually thought the shower was entertaining.  I was clean and ... oh don't get me started on how wonderful the Oregon water is.  (My hair was so smooth and soft, my skin was soft and not cracking.... *sigh*, the same thing happened when I visited Paige in TX... curse you Utah water! ok.. it's out of my system... I think.) 

Needless to say... we were ready to roll earlier than the others that morning.  Whittaker slept most of the morning also.  I guess that was a good thing... I wouldn't have minded a snooze myself...

The Hand of God.

After leaving Durkee, we witnessed a beautiful moment.  We referred to it as 'the hand of God'.  No spiritual moment or anything just an inspiring view of the sun streaming through a space in the clouds as the sun set for the day.  It was lovely. 

(Taken through the window of a moving van....  not bad eh?)