2nd week of May

GIS Conference
The big news this week is Dode teaching at a convention he attended, the 2012 Washington GIS Conference sponsored by WaURISA (Washington State Chapter of Urban and Regional Information Systems Association)  How's that for a mouthful?  The convention was held in Tacoma, Wa for three days.    Dode had applied for and received permission to teach a one hour class.  His topic?  How the Tulalip Tribe is identifying and restoring monuments on the reservation.  Does that kind of class appeal to GIS users?  Maybe.  He had about 12 people in his class.  One of the people attending told him that his was the best class of the convention.

ready to start the class, he looks a bit nervous to me!

part way through

Dode livened up his presentation by giving a few words of wisdom gleaned from his children, here is the quote from Miriam about a pile of leaves and a sucker.

Friday night camping
The kids have been begging Dode to take them camping in our trailer so he set the date for Friday night.  The big girls went to spend the night with my dad but the little ones and Isaac were able to go.  As they started getting the trailer ready to go, Miriam started expressing her displeasure.  Apparently when she'd said she wanted to go camping, she forgot to mention that she wanted to go camping at the beach.  They're going to a campground owned by our church about 10 miles from our house.  She later told me, "At least we have the trailer so we don't have to be outside so much!"  Umm, you're camping!

Dode had challenged Isaac to be a fun big brother to the little ones.

He found a book about camping with kids and used the idea of building a tee-pee for them to play in.

blowing bubbles is always fun outside

Miriam loved being barefoot on the grass

She told Dode, "This grass feels amazing!" several times.  I guess they do a better job on creating a golf course type lawn than we do.

They spent some time in the trailer doing a puzzle.

Another of Isaac's ideas, "spider" dogs.  Our trailer is in the background.  See the port-a-pottie?  There was no way Dode was letting anyone use the toilet in the trailer because he didn't want to deal with dumping it.  When Miriam had to use the bathroom, he directed her to the port-a-pottie.  She took a look and said, "It's one of the big hole ones" and decided not to go.  She had to make the long trek to the flush toilets each time she needed the bathroom.

Miriam finally has a loose tooth after years of waiting and wanting one.  While she was camping, Dode heard a "Grrr!" from her.  He asked what was wrong and she said, "I just can't stop wiggling it!"  He said it happened several times during the camp out.  It's barely loose, she has a long way to go.  


Since the kids and Dode were gone, I had a free evening and decided to do just what I wanted.  I know not everyone would choose to spend their evening the way I did, but it was perfect for me.  I went down to the YMCA, did strength training, a kickboxing class, followed by an Aqua Zumba.  Then I sat in the sauna for 15 minutes and totally melted my bones.  I was there a little over three hours.  I stopped at Redbox on the way home and rented The Vow.  It must have a lot of bad words because the clear play filter was kicking in all the time!  I don't watch movies very often because it tries my patience to have the kids constantly interrupting and needing us to push pause so they can go to the bathroom/get a snack.  Once the movie was over, I wondered if I'd have been better off just going to bed early.  Not the most exciting movie ever!


45 minute search

Elizabeth and Miriam both use their MP3 players more for audio books than music.  Thursday night Miriam was playing outside on our "spinny thing" while listening to a book.  Her batteries ran low so she took a trip down the zip line to come inside and charge it.  She has a SansaClip that clips on to her pocket.  She turned it off, clipped it on, and headed down the zip line.  Somewhere between the top and the bottom of the zip line, she lost the MP3.  She came in and asked for my help.  At first I thought it would be an easy find but after looking everywhere, and even getting down on my hands and knees, I couldn't find it anywhere.  I got the rake and spent 45 minutes raking the grass,  hoping to find the MP3.  I finally gave up but as I was going inside, I kept looking everywhere possible.  I eventually found it, tucked under the steps leading up to the deck.  She'd lost it when she was only 3 feet from the door!  I felt like the woman from the New Testament.... 

Luke 15:8-10

King James Version (KJV)
⁸ Either what woman having ten pieces of silver, if she lose one piece, doth not light a candle, and sweep the house, and seek diligently till she find it?

⁹ And when she hath found it, she calleth her friends and her neighbours together, saying, Rejoice with me; for I have found the piece which I had lost.


Elizabeth's Dock
Thursday my dad showed up with a surprise for Elizabeth.  Elizabeth is our nature lover.  She has a small pond near our house where she loves to spend time watching nature.  My dad built her a dock for her pond.  Friday Dode, Isaac, and Elizabeth installed the dock.  She now has a dry place to sit and dream, tucked away from the rest of the house in her private hideaway.  Doesn't every child need a place like that?  How lucky for her that her grandpa helped her make it great.  Jacob kept watching Elizabeth walk across the lawn and disappear around the corner.  He finally asked me just what she was doing.  

delivering the dock

My dad HATES to have his photo taken.

installing the dock

standing on it for the 1st time

On her dock.  My dad suggested we buy some goldfish to stock the pond but Dode is worried they'd be accidentally released into the wild and mess with the ecosystem.  It would be fun for her to train them to eat when she visited.

Jetty Island
We took the boat out for the first time of the year on Saturday afternoon.  We went to Jetty Island.  We took William, Miriam, Isaac, Isaac Colson and a friend of Isaac Colson's.  The girls were spending the day with my dad.  


It's hardly worth launching the boat.  When we got there I saw a kayaker pull up at the same time.  He'd launched and made it to the island before we even had the boat launched.  It's less than a five minute ride across the channel to the island.  

the channel is about 200 yards wide

We normally visit Jetty Island in the summer on a free passenger ferry operated by the Everett Parks Department.  The ferry only runs mid July to Labor Day so the only way to get there this time of year is your own boat.  One good thing about having your own boat is being able to get on and off the island when you want.  It's a first come first served system and sometimes on nice sunny days you have to wait hours for your five minute ride.    The tide was out so the kids didn't swim but they enjoyed playing in the sand, flying kites, and splashing in puddles.  Jetty Island is a big kite surfing area.  At one time, Dode counted 45 kites in the air.  I don't know how they go back and forth without  running into each other!

two mermaids on the beach

It's impossible to show the congestion of kites in a photo