Mount Rainier

Me and the kids at Paradise.

Gabby and Gram at Christine Falls

Sam and Gram at the creek.

Sam loves the water.

Playing in the rain - something we haven't seen in a while out here.

We tried to escape the city heat on Wednesday by heading for the hills (like all good Tennessee people should do). We went up to Mount Rainier National Park, something we had not yet done since we moved here. We did visit it in 2005 when Gabby was about Sam's age. We drove the road along the south up to Paradise and back. We couldn't make the whole loop because a section of road was closed due to the flooding back in January. We ate a picnic, stopped at a couple of falls, and spent a good long while at Paradise due to the rain shower that started just as we got there. When we pulled into the lot it was still 80 degrees. It rained and the wind blew and the thunder and lightning flashed (fairly rare here at our house) and by the time we left it had cooled down to 65. It was heavenly. We should have put the blanket out in the back of the van and just spent the night there since it was 104 by the time we got home. And then that was the night with no power. At least the day was good!

How was your night last night?

"DuPont Power Restored

July 30, 2009 -- Approximately 2,100 DuPont residents spent the night with out power during one of the hottest weather events in Western Washington history. According to Puget Sound Energy, an underground cable failed at approximately 9pm on Wednesday, July 29, shutting down fans and air conditioning units that were helping keep DuPont residents cool. Record highs that day were recorded from 103 degrees at Sea Tac Airport to 107 degrees in Vancouver, Washington. Power was finally restored by 9am the following morning."

http://www.hometownclipper.com/id8.html

We got home from Rainier (pics coming) at 6:30 PM. My van read 104 degrees outside. It was 90 degrees downstairs in my house, more upstairs. A little after 8 PM, the power went out and didn't come back on until after 9 AM this morning. One of the most miserable nights I have ever spent. The excuse? Buried power lines. Really? We had buried power lines in North Carolina and never lost power for 13 hours when the temps were over 100. They bury the lines in Florida. I'm sure we're not the only neighborhood in WA with buried power lines. But we had the worst power outage. Sure seems like something isn't right.

Oh, and that 103 at SeaTac was the highest EVER recorded there. Previous record? 100. Yesterday's previous record? 89. Average for yesterday? 77. The high yesterday in Baghdad? 102.2. Had you beat yesterday, dear. Plus you have an air conditioner. And no guests. And no kids.

Thankfully today was cooler and tonight is very nice. I even already shut my windows because I was cool.

Edited to add: Robert tried to make me feel better by saying his air conditioner froze up on him that same night. Not sure it makes me feel better. I'd like to think someone had it ok.

H-O-T-HOT

It's hot here. And it won't stop any time soon. Just for reference, the average temp for Seattle today is 77. My van read 99. And my poor mother is here. And for those of you who have never lived out west or up north, no, we don't have air conditioning.

"To put the heat into a bit of perspective: Portlanders could have found cooler weather in Abu Dhabi (104 degrees), Houston (95 degrees) and Miami (90 degrees) - to name just a few possible escapes." Only 12 degrees cooler than Baghdad. Right now it is 83 here (at 11PM) and 92 in Baghdad (at 9 AM).

Story

More things I freeze

I thought of a couple more: Pancakes. Seems like now with Robert gone we always have 1 left when we make pancakes. I pop the extra in the freezer and after a while we have enough to thaw and eat instead of having to make them. We did that not too long ago and it was fun since we had different flavors in there. Sometimes I make chocolate chip and sometimes blueberry.

Pasta and sauce. We are notorious for making too much pasta. Again, I freeze the little leftover bits and either put into soup when we make that or when we have enough I just heat it up and add sauce. I've also frozen bits of sauce that were leftover and, again, when there's enough, thaw it out and heat it up.

Splash Park

We went to one of the nearby splash parks on Friday with some friends. The splash part was very fun but the water was cold. Thankfully there was a playground also so the kids would play in the water a while and then on the playground for a while. We had a picnic and enjoyed a nice day in the sun. Sammy wore himself out and napped right there on the blanket.

Breakfast in Bed Day

Beware, when they get to be six, they are sneaky. On Sunday the 19th Gabby asked me, "What day is tomorrow?" When I told her it was the 20th she said, "It's Breakfast in Bed Day." When I asked where she got that she said her teacher told her that before school was out. I was a little skeptical that she remembered the date. Then on Monday morning when I got up she was waiting. "We have to have breakfast in bed today!" So I agreed and we took Pop Tarts up to my bed and ate them. Afterward she said, "This isn't Breakfast in Bed Day. I made that up so we could do it!" I suspected her but to admit it so quickly was funny! Tell your friends, July 20th is Breakfast in Bed Day!

VBS 2009

Gabby went to VBS a few weeks ago. I mentioned it in my Four Months post but here is the video from the closing night program. They sure look like they had a fun week and I'm glad Gabby got to go. Thanks to all the great people who made it happen this year!