KEEPING UP WITH THE NEILSONS

August was jam packed with places to go, things to do and people to see. The kids spent a few days with each of the Grandparents one week while I attended an intensive music class all day during the week. We went camping, the guys went hiking, Sadie and I enjoyed a scrapbook weekend together, Curtis went to camp, we all enjoyed a day at the beach. It was a busy, busy month. I think Curtis was only home for a total of only 9 days in August. Here's a few pictures of our adventures.

APE CAVES

Giuseppe (the youth pastor at ACC) was taking the youth group to the Ape Caves in Washington and invited Erik, Sadie and I to join them. The caves are underground and are formed by lava tubes. It is the longest continuous lava tube in the US. The section of cave that we hiked through was 1.5 miles long. It is completely dark in the cave and when we all turned off our flashlights we could not even see our hands in front of our faces... kind of an eerie feeling.

Curtis descending the ladder into the cave.

Sadie, entering the cave. (This is the part where she started to get a little worried).

However, as the youngest in the group she sure was a trooper and did a great job in the cave.

Look at those strong girls, Sadie and Hannah, holding back that bolder.

Three guys helped lower everyone in the group over this tricky little drop off.

Erik was the last person down and had to climb instead of be lowered.

The gang

An attempt at a self portrait in the pitch dark.

HIKING THE SOUTH SISTER

Erik and Curtis climbed the South Sister. One more of Oregon's top 10 peaks marked off of Erik's list! They left home Thursday morning and then hiked 2 miles up the mountain to Moraine Lake where they spent the night. The next morning they left the camping equipment that wasn't needed for the hike to the top at the lake and with lighter packs they hiked 3.5 miles to the top. Elevation 10,363 ft.!!!!! After hiking to the top, they hiked back down to the lake and spent the night. Curtis was so tired that he crawled into bed at 6:30 pm and did not wake up until 6:30 the next morning! The next day the guys had an easy 2 mile hike off the mountain and celebrated by going to see the new GI Joe movie in Bend.

Curtis at Moraine lake, ready to take on the South Sister.

Top of the mountain!

View from the top.

Snow melting into Teardrop Pool, the state's highest lake.

Obviously, these guys are used to humans.

The Lewis Glacier and a pool collecting its runoff.

The Middle and North Sisters.

Erik has plans to climb both in the same trip next summer.

Views from the top:

WI-NE-MA

Curtis came home from hiking the South Sister Sunday evening. I washed and re-packed his clothes so the next morning I could drop him off at the beach for a week of Jr. High Camp at WI-NE-MA. This was his first year at camp by himself with out Dad and Mom directing or Mom being a cabin mom. So, there are no pictures. But, from what I hear, he had a great time.

Then the poor guy was home from camp for about 12 hours before we left again for a week at East Lake. All in all, he was gone from home for almost 17 days straight!

EAST LAKE

We camped at East Lake with some really great friends. We hiked, fished, boated, visited an obsidian flow, fed ducks, played in the dirt, tried not to play in the dirt, shopped in Bend, ate ice cream for lunch (twice!), found some hot springs, and had a lot of fun.

Sadie feeding the ducks ritz crackers near the hot springs that were too hot to go in during the heat of the day. And the water smelled like Sulfer. The hot springs were waaaaay across the lake from where we were camping. Erik and I rowed our little boat all the way there and all the way back!

Sadie, James and Ethan threw pumice rocks towards the duck (it's a Juvenile Drake Mallard (thanks to a duck lecture from Doug)) in hopes that the duck would think it was bread and come closer.

Poor Sadie was the only girl out of the four kids. She was definitely feeling it. However, she got to go shopping with the Moms on Wednesday.

All the boys on top of a large rock.

An attempt at a group shot of the kids.

James, Sadie, Curtis & Ethan

Did I mention it was kind of a dirty, dusty place?

The little boys looked like this pretty much the whole time. Curtis and Sadie

did their best to avoid getting dusted to death by the boys.

A picture proving that Jen was there. Why are the Moms never in the pictures?

Doug and the boys

Look at those Happy Hikers!

A shot of me... just to prove I really was there.

Well, that's August for you. One week left and school starts. We'll be taking this week to get back in the swing of things and to get organized and ready for a busy, crazy school year. Curtis will be in 7th grade, no longer the lowest of the low in Middle School. Sadie will be top dog at the elementary school as she starts 5th grade. This year I will be starting my 4 terms of the Ed. Program at WOU. Erik will start his second year of work on his Master's degree. There's never a dull moment for the Neilsons. Hopefully, there will be time in there somewhere to update the blog, we'll see how that goes.

Wow! This summer has flown by fast. Here's a glimpse at what went on in July for the Neilsons.

SOFTBALL

Sadie played softball again this year. Last year she was the only third grader on a team of second grade girls. This year, she ended up on a team with a lot of her good friends and they are all her age. At the beginning of the season she would never swing the bat. Which, at this point the odds are still pretty good that she could just end up walking to a base. But, still, she would never swing. Finally, she started swinging. We were so proud of her just for being brave enough to swing. And then, because she was swinging, she hit several balls!!! Some were fouls and sometimes she struck out. But still, swinging and striking out is better than being scared to swing. We were so proud of her.

Sadie Jean the softball queen!

Go Neilson!

Swing Batter Batter

ERIK'S MT. HOOD TRIP (June)

In June Erik climbed Mt. Hood for the second time. He has a goal to climb the 10 highest peaks in Oregon and Mt. Hood is at the top of the highest peaks list. This year he climbed with three other people (Joel, Mark and a friend of Mark's). Since Erik had already made it to the very top of the Mountain on a previous climb, the group did not ascend to the very top this time.

The shadow of the mountain on top of the clouds. Amazing!

THE SCOOTER

Look what came home from Camp WI-NE-MA with us! Before camp started Erik had been asking around trying to find a scooter to ride while at camp. Tim and Patty, who had directed Jr. Camp before we did offered up the scooter that they used during their weeks of directing. Erik had so much fun on the scooter zipping all over the camp. At the end of the week Tim and Patty said it was ours if we wanted it. Now the kids are having a blast running all over the neighborhood on the scooter. They love it. Sadie especially, rides it almost every day.

Curtis on his sweet ride.

Miss Sadie Jean the speeding queen!

4TH OF JULY

The Oregon Christian Convention always take place over the 4th of July. This year, they had invited Erik to speak in their evening session. So, on a very hot 4th of July night we headed over to Turner Oregon where the OCC is held. The convention takes place in an incredibly old enormous building. Even though all the doors were open, it was still extremely hot inside. After the evening session was done a friend of Erik's stole the kids away from us and bought them Nestle Toll House Ice Cream Sandwiches. Curtis ate TWO! The rest of us ate pie and ice cream and then enjoyed a firework show that OCC puts on every year.

Curty True not too happy to be posing for me.

Sades, happy to be posing, not happy about the spiderwebs.

Erik speaking. We thought it was hot sitting and listening.

It was super hot on the stage under the lights.

Sadie Sandwich

BARKER FAMILY CAMPING

The kids and I camped at Foster Lake with Grandpa & Grandma Barker and Aunt Beth, Aunt Erin and Elan. We got to Foster Lake on Sunday and stayed until Thursday. After we left more of the Barker family joined the campers for the rest of the weekend. We all had a lot of fun just relaxing, reading, and playing.

Sadie blowing bubbles

Grandpa putting Mentos into a Coke bottle. Run Away!

Sadie and Elan contemplating the idea of getting into the water.

3 Goofy Kids

Roasting chicken and steak for dinner

Kayaking. I raced Curtis and Curtis won!

Playing Bocce Ball. And Growing taller than Grandma! Yay Curtis!

Attempting to catch a squirrel

Contemplating life

My sisters and I

LONG LOST FRIEND

Right after camping with my family, we headed to the beach to meet up with my friend Jeni. I already posted a longer blog about our friendship. So, I'll just post the picture here.

NEILSON FAMILY VACATION

The annual Neilson family vacation took place in LaPine this year. We stayed in a house that comfortably fit all of us. We relaxed, played lots of Scrabble and Scattergories, played the Wii, read lots of books, watched "America's Got Talent", hiked, visited Cultus Lake and lot of other fun stuff.

Sadie and Emmalie rafting at Cultus Lake

Lilli had lots of fun in the water.

All week the bigger cousins had lots of fun with Lilli.

Ice Cream after a day at Cultus Lake. Yum!

Reading at the Lake while the kids played in the water.

Erik and Curtis caught crawdads.

When Erik was a kid he made his sisters eat crawdads.

Curtis followed suit and made his cousins and sister eat them too.

Grammy and Sadie rafting

Sadie and Laura at the top of Paulina Peak.

My goofy family climbing rocks at an obsidian flow.

Curtis and Grandma at the bowling alley.

Grammy taught the girls how to knit.

The girls in their matching clothes at the bowling alley.

Erik trying to crawl down into a cave. It was a tight fit and once he got into the cave the mosquitos attacked him. The rest of us did not attempt to go spelunking.

We got to up to a watch tower and visit with the lady who watches

for fires all around the LaPine area. It was super windy up there.

BEAT THE HEAT

At the end of July the temperature rose above 100 degrees! While in many states that is normal, it is not for Western Oregon. We were roasting and worried that we might just melt away. Fortunately, Grandpa and Grandma Barker have a pool and there's lots of rivers around. We found some ways to keep cool.

My brothers and sisters and I all converged at the pool on the same day.

It had been since Christmas that we all had been together.

We spent a lovely 4 hours floating in the water.