Lassen

There is almost no evidence of our trip left at this point. Over the last couple of days, I've done countless loads of laundry to get all the campground dirt and sunscreen out of our clothes and worked hard to put everything back in its place...a skill I'll probably never excel at. Judging by the photo above, I might've just scanned a postcard. Hardly any evidence left, except for the 567 photos I took during our three and a half days at Lassen Volcanic National Park.

This trip was potentially one of the most perfect camping trips ever...at least in the history of our family. The only thing that might've made it better is if it was a day or two longer.

We left home on Sunday around 9am and arrived at the park and our campground at Manzanita Lake, right at the park entrance, around 2pm. It was a long drive, aided by several books on CD. Books on CD used to entertain my children without fail. They still do, but now they can't agree on which books they like. They can't agree on much at all, actually.

And that made our camping trip that much more necessary. They were driving me insane at home. I hoped that being outdoors without a TV or iPad (which got no reception at Lassen anyway) would suddenly make them more agreeable. I was wrong. There was still plenty of fighting, but it was definitely better.

Things worked out perfectly at the campground. I'd made a reservation in a loop that was reservable, but I wasn't psyched about. We went to our site. It was right next to the bathrooms, which is good and bad, but we decided it was mostly bad. My real intention was to go check out the D-loop where it is tents only and you get spots on a first come, first served basis. We were relatively early and there were plenty of spots there, so we switched. And were thrilled with our new little spot.We spent much of the afternoon setting up camp and then went out for a drive to the "Devastated Area", which was demolished 100 years ago when Mt. Lassen last erupted. There wasn't a whole lot to see there, except to learn about different types of volcanic rock...and to get a nice view of the mountain.But it gave us some familiarity with the road construction going on and with our surroundings. It was hot, but fun.

We went back, made dinner, and enjoyed the obligatory fire and s'mores before bedtime.Monday started out differently. As soon as we were done with breakfast...and I'd photographed this fine fellow near our tent:we set out on the road to Bumpass Hell. Doesn't sound all that appealing, but it's home to some of the most interesting geothermal features in the park. We also learned that the road construction wasn't really active late on Sunday. There was a lot more waiting to be done this time around. The woman at the end of the road, with the stop sign, asked us where we were going. Then she told us that Bumpass Hell was closed due to snow. Snow? Really? Sure there was snow on Lassen Peak, but it was hard to fathom trailheads closed due to snow in late July. We went anyway.

And sure enough, after an hour or so of driving, we reached the trailhead parking lot for Bumpass Hell. Plenty of snow. Not so much trailhead. But it was a beautiful view, so we stopped for photos, then continued down the road to Sulphur Works. I didn't know what Sulphur Works was, but I figured we'd find out. And I was glad we did. It turns out that it's a little place along the roadway where you can see a boiling mud pot and steaming fumaroles...and as you might expect, it smells a lot like sulphur. Despite knowing, academically, that these are normal volcanic features, it still boggles my mind that these are natural. Maybe it's their proximity to the road or maybe it's just that I've never seen anything like them before.From there, we kept going, with the idea of reaching the trailhead for Mill Creek Falls. It turns out, that's at the opposite end of the park from Manzanita Lake, so we drove the entire park and found the trailhead at the South Entrance. The hike was hot, but so, so pretty. The towering volcanic peaks and the broad swaths of bright yellow flowers instantly brought The Sound of Music to mind.I took too many pictures. It was hard not to.We walked until we thought we must've reached the falls, as unimpressive as they were.I only learned later that Mill Creek Falls is a true waterfall. We must have turned around just steps before we got there.Oh well. It was such a beautiful hike, it was hard to be sad about it. Mam needed some help on the way back. She was tired and hot (like the rest of us), but so much whinier that she got to ride on Daddy's shoulders. The rest of us should be so lucky.We stopped at the visitor's center for some popsicles and air conditioning. The kind lady in the gift shop (from whom we'd bought nothing) offered to take our photo. And then we drove back, stopping here and there for photos, including this one of a frozen Lake Helen, and to check out another trailhead on the way. It was snowy, but open. It gave us a plan for the next day.

Another dinner back at the campsite and we chose the dusky after-dinner hours for a short hike around Manzanita Lake. Our campsite wasn't too near the lake itself, so we drove up to the lake in the van. Every single hike we took was fantastic, but as far as picture postcards go, this one took the cake.Couldn't have been a much better end to the day!

Catch Up

Oh, so many things I meant to blog about at one time in the past few weeks. But the days somehow slipped by with nary a word committed to the blogosphere.

I have a new job. It's not keeping me busy. I'm having a hard time getting up to speed because there's so little time to spend at the computer with the kids home. Where I overbooked the entire family last year, such that we were either out of town or the kids were in camp, I totally underbooked this summer. Our planned trips are minimal, the days in camp are much the same. It's been a long summer already.

So, I was going to post about how my fabulous sister visited. Not the least of her fabulousness was that she spent an evening with all three kids, letting Daddy and me go to the City to see Wicked.I think I would have enjoyed it quite a bit had it not been for the rather large, multiply pierced woman in the seat next to me who insisted on texting throughout the performance, talking to her friends in the seats next to her and singing loudly during the more famous songs. Oh, and she farted. A lot.

But before that, I had a nice time hanging out with Aunt Karen and SPENCER! She's seven months pregnant right now, so we kept it mellow. We spent one late morning/early afternoon at a local park with a water feature. Naturally, my kids loved it.
SPENCER! wasn't altogether sure about the whole thing. Sure. It was fun while it lasted, but then you're just cold and wet, huh?We took a picnic break, dressing the kids with strict instructions that there would be no more water play today. We had a great little shelter. Whoever invented the Sportbrella should be given a medal.Easy to set up, easy to take down. Plenty of shade. Hard to fit back in that handy carrying case, but I'll forgive them for that. And, I'll have to forgive my kids for this. Because those of you who have met my kids, perhaps even in this very park, know that I should know better than to get them dressed near water...ever.

Aunt Karen and SPENCER! left on Wednesday, which was probably good for them since we had our final weekend of tournament baseball coming up. But prior to that, I had a couple of very bored children. I don't know what we did on Thursday, but it was probably miserable enough that I had to come up with a "real" activity for Friday. That turned out to be berry picking.We spent a couple of hours and more than a couple of tens of dollars picking raspberries, blackberries and loganberries. It was fun and kept everyone busy for a while. Smunch couldn't contain his enthusiasm for the notion of berry pie. I asked who was going to make said pie and he offered to help. He and Mam had already helped themselves to plenty of berries, after all.It was a really fun morning. And we came home with about 5 pounds of berries...enough to make two crumbles when I was too lazy to make an actual pie.

Then tournament weekend came fast and furious. Another weekend of driving 45 minutes each way for three days just so Smunch's team could get beaten at his favorite game. Smunch got to play a little more this time around and made some excellent plays.It was still fun to watch and the Red Fireballs managed to beat the team they played Sunday morning in their final game of the season.It wasn't good enough to move on, but it was July 4th and there were barbeques to attend and fireworks to see.The next week went by in a blur of new swim lessons and attempted end-of-season party planning...where the Fireballs coach and I clearly didn't see eye-to-eye. He asked for a barbeque at a particular park and that's exactly what I organized, but every time I set a date, he sent out another e-mail changing it. Then the day before the party, he announced that his wife would be bringing pizza. I ended up thwarting him by e-mailing his wife directly, telling her I'd purchased enough hot dogs for an army. She offered to not bring pizza.

In the end, the party was perfect. Although very few families RSVP'd, the turnout was really good for a party in the middle of the summer. And it was so nice to see the boys playing together and goofing off for a change.Of course, that doesn't mean they weren't playing baseball!And at the end of it all, I got to present the coaches with the gifts I'd somehow been charged with organizing and each of the boys went home with a medal.As frustrating as the all-star season felt, it was a really fun evening and it was nice to have my kid back...just being a kid.

Cosmic Sports Collison

What do baseball, soccer, tennis and football have in common? This date in history. At least that's true for our family.

I was on my way to baseball camp with Smunch this morning while the U.S. played in the FIFA 2010 World Cup. Smunch had been watching on TV before we left, so I turned it on the radio in the car for our drive. There were only a couple of minutes left when we got to the ballpark. The game was tied with no score. If the U.S. didn't score, they were going home. If they did, the got to move on to the round of 16. We sat in the parking lot to listen to the end. Regulation time ended. No score. Then there were 4 minutes of make-up time for all the timeouts they'd had. The radio announcers talk so fast when calling soccer games that Smunch couldn't really keep track of what was going on. And American announcers are apparently too staid to yell GOOOAAAALLLLLLLLL! So he just about missed it when the U.S. kicked a goal with three minutes to spare. What a FUN end to a long game!

On the way home, there was another sports story on the radio. A match at Wimbledon was still going on...after 8.5 hours! Turns out it went on for 10 hours and then they stopped for the evening. It isn't even over yet. It's 58-58 in the 5th set. Ridiculous and kind of unfathomable.

But perhaps the most unfathomable thing happened last. I went to pick Smunch up from baseball camp at 4 o'clock this afternoon. He was tired and happy, as usual. As we left, I saw a familiar-looking guy getting into a shiny, white minivan. Nah, I thought. Couldn't be. But I stopped and told the kids to stop to see who it was backing out of that parking spot right there. Sure enough. I felt stupid standing there gawking at the man, so I waved awkwardly...and he waved back. "Dang, Smunch." I said. "Steve Young just waved to you!"

Baseball Camping and Team #4

This is the kids' first week of camp for the summer. They're in two camps each this year, so the next week of camp will also be their last week. I decided to go easy on the schedule this year after our camp/vacation marathon last year. This week, Mam is going to half-day cooking camp in one direction while Smunch is in full-day baseball camp in the other.

Think this is too much pressure?Nah! This baseball camp has a really good reputation, so I enrolled Smunch this year. At the end of last year's week of baseball camp (a different camp) Smunch never wanted to go back, but I talked him into this one...and he's having a blast.

Having spent so much time on the baseball diamond already this year, Smunch knows enough other kids who love baseball that he already knew a couple of the kids there (thankfully) and they make a cute little bunch that sits together every morning.They spend their mornings learning baseball skills and then spend their afternoons on teams, playing ball. Smunch is on the Mets and although he got separated from most of the other boys, he's still with one he knows. And it turns out he's happy with that.

'Cause the other boys ended up playing for the Dodgers.

Slip and Slide

Ah, great memories of my own childhood! It never really mattered that there was some uncomfortable tree root under the plastic or that we were covered in grass. In my own kids' case, it didn't even matter that it wasn't quite warm enough to be soaking wet in the backyard. Too much fun!

Daddy's Day

When it comes to Father's Day, it's kind of a bummer that my parents live so close by. Daddy always has to share the day with my dad. Of course, my dad is hardly an attention hog (just the opposite), so we had a nice, relaxed day where we met my parents for breakfast at their favorite breakfast joint, Daddy took a nice, quiet trip to the farmer's market on his own, then we packed up a picnic lunch and re-met my parents for a picnic in the park. We all played catch for a long time, hung out on the grass, munched sandwiches. Then we parted ways and Daddy opted for pizza and movie night.

All in all, it probably wasn't as much celebration as my kids' Daddy deserved. 'Cause see, he's gotta be one of the best dads ever.He's the perfect complement to my parenting style. When I'm out of patience, he usually has some to spare (and vice versa). He knows all kind of random crap, so when I say "I don't know, you'll have to ask Daddy." I really mean it. And he loves to explain all that random crap to his kids...especially his ever-curious son. He beams with pride at Smunch's quest for random knowledge. His little boy worships him.

And although Mam appears to worship me (a position in which I'm decidedly uncomfortable), no one should underestimate her love for Daddy either. If she has to get stitches or go for any other medical procedure she deems scary, no one is as good as Daddy. I just don't have the kind of comforting skills that he has in those situations. I think I get too stressed out myself.

He brushes teeth, packs lunches, coaxes splinters out of little fingers, fixes computer problems, sets television limits and keeps the daily clutter from becoming unbearable.

And, of course, he's been a fantastic partner is this grand adventure of parenting. He's the reason I don't know how anyone does this on their own.

Back to Baseball

I think the blog got more of a break from baseball than our family did. The last tournament ended on Sunday, with the next one...more of a scrimmage tournament against our local Little League All-Star teams...on Wednesday.Predictably, Smunch didn't mind.

I didn't really mind either...at least not until I got an e-mail from the coach saying that he needed me to figure out how to feed 40 people between the two games. I got that e-mail Tuesday morning. I'm a planner. When not given time to plan? I become a snarky, irritated stress case. Despite the coach's suggestion that I somehow get Costco pizzas to the school for dinner, I ended up getting in touch with the mom-in-charge on our other All-Star Team. They already had it all figured out (with an additional 12 hours of notice), so we joined them in barbequing hotdogs, supplying watermelon, veggies, chips, cookies and drinks for our team and the Little League team we'd just played. It turned out fine.

Somewhere around Tuesday night, however, I began to stew about the fact that I was expected to put on this dinner thing (although I don't consider myself team mom AT ALL), yet the coach doesn't really let my kid play. He'd mentioned something via e-mail about putting the kids at different positions for this tournament since it wasn't a very serious one. But at practice Tuesday afternoon, he put Smunch in the catcher's gear and barely let him out...even though he had no real need for a catcher. I was peeved.

I realize there's a significant amount of mommy bear-ness to my reaction. But it's tough to put in all the effort to get him to practice and tournaments when you feel like your kid is seriously underappreciated. Yeah. I know he's the smallest on the team and I know he doesn't have the meanest bat and can't throw perhaps as far as the other kids can. But he wasn't even getting a chance to show off any of his "stuff" or really gain any skills. I lay in bed mulling this whole thing over until I couldn't stand it anymore and mommy bear won.

I got up and composed a quick e-mail to his coach, requesting that he give Smunch a chance to play pitcher or 2nd base the next day...in addition to catcher and right field, if necessary. Maybe just an inning? The next morning, I got a surprisingly accomodating e-mail back thanking me for reminding him about his promise and saying Gavin would get to play pitcher, at least against the "B Team". Fair enough.

And wouldn't you know it? Smunch was on the bench for the first inning. Then he played catcher in the second inning. While behind the mask, he snagged a poorly hit ball and threw the hitter out at first. Awesome! It was one of the first real plays by a catcher I'd seen all year. I wasn't as irritated that he was at catcher, but still hoping the coach is going to make good on his e-mail.

And then? Smunch was at pitcher. The ball only came his direction once...a pop fly that he caught. And then I had to go cook hot dogs. I figured his inning was up. I wasn't missing anything.Or was I? Turns out, he played pitcher again and caught two more balls, throwing players out at first and third during the 6th inning. And he drove in a run while batting. It was a banner day after all!After dinner, The Fireballs played the Little League A Team. It was a much tougher game, but Smunch got to play pitcher (Pitcher, I should add, is a purely defensive position. The coaches were pitching. Smunch was just there for fielding purposes) for two more innings, doing a good job. And...he played right field. Right field is another throw-away kind of position at this level. Only left-handed players are likely to hit it out there and there aren't so many of those. So imagine my surprise when a ball got launched to right field. These kids can really hit at this level. And there was my tiny little Smunch, glove in the air.

Having spoken to him about "the play", I think he was probably a surprised as I was that he caught the ball. Even some of the parents started calling him the MVP for the evening. I don't know if it was because he was really that impressive or because they'd never gotten the chance to see him do anything before. He was thrilled. I was thrilled. They may have lost their second game, but no one in our family cared. The kids were tired and they played well.

I felt a little sheepish for having stuck my neck out like that for my kid. Of course I think he deserves better. What kid doesn't? It was a huge relief to see him do so well, given the opportunity. I'm so proud of him. And I hope I can hold onto that for the next time he needs someone to show a little more faith in him.

Learning to Share

We used to have two wimpy little apricot trees along the side of our house. Then, last year, one of them croaked unexpectedly. Everything above about 3 feet off the ground just died. Bummer. The surviving tree looks to be in peril as well, with a big, expanding black crack a couple feet up the trunk. But it flowered and produced plenty of fruit this year.

I tried to wait until it was ripe to pick, but I noticed lots and lots of half-eaten apricots on the ground and decided to pick as many as I could reach before there were none left.I probably picked about three dozen. But they weren't ripe. I had to put them in paper bags on the counter to ripen. It worked well and now they're delicious! But...there were lots of apricots I couldn't reach. I wasn't even sure how the squirrels could reach them. I thought maybe I'd get out the big clippers and just cut off whole branches to get to them.

But, I hesitated. And these guys didn't. I accept that I need to share with the wildlife, such as it is. But really, couldn't they share a little more with us?

Cookin'

I'm really not this kind of mom. I believe that part of parenting should be teaching your kids how to live independently and I understand that part of that might be teaching them to cook.But I'm not the kind of mom who wants my kids help me cook dinner. I'm all about efficiency and cooking dinner with kid help has got to be one of the most inefficient processes in the whole world.

So, you can imagine why Daddy would have picked up the camera upon seeing me teaching the kids to make turkey tacos. I figured it's easy and the kids were bugging me...and they'd bug me less if they were helping me. Of course, they weren't all that helpful. In all my years of cooking, I forgot that it actually requires practice to brown ground meat properly...making sure it's not in giant hard-to-cook clumps and that you're not flinging it out of the frying pan.There were tears (on Mam's part) and frustration (on all of our parts), but they helped make the whole dinner. And maybe, just maybe, they ate just a little more for their part in the process.