After the dismal night’s sleep in Chemult, OR, we headed for the Lava Cast Forest to start day 3′s adventures.  Takes 9 miles [...]]]> OK, so, it’s not quite a year ago (yet) that we did this, but, you know, the pictures keep the memories fresh. Here’s part 1 and part 2 for those that aren’t so fresh.

After the dismal night’s sleep in Chemult, OR, we headed for the Lava Cast Forest to start day 3′s adventures.  Takes 9 miles of dirt roads covered in a powdery dust to get to — ohh well, after 4 drops of rain per square inch the night before, this dirt was just the icing on the cake for the new car:

The lava casts were fascinating. Quick blurb about it here:

Which, to be perfectly honest, a nice paved trail was ideal for the pregnant mama and todler. This is a fairly shallow cast — only a couple feet deep. Some of them were 7-8 feet deep.

You can really get a good idea of how the trees stopped the lava flow before they burned out. Valerie is standing tall on her feet here.

At the end of the trail, this tree stump was too perfect of a todler photo op. If only she’d look at the camera.

This is my favorite of the bunch.

Many more photos of the lava casts in the second and third pages of the gallery.

The drive back down the dirt road was done largely with the engine off, you know, because I could.  Alas, I lost the bet and had to fire it up before we got to the end of the dirt.

Heading north on HWY 97, figuring we really hadn’t had enough lava for one day, I really wanted to do some spelunking. Lava tube spelunking in the Lava River Cave. I seam to have forgotton to take the camera on this adventure.  The sheer size (height/width) of the lava tube was impressive considering it used to be full of swiftly moving magma. We didn’t make it all the way to the end (1.0 miles) because Maia was D.O.N.E being in the backpack carrier. We bundled her up for the cold temps, but, just riding along probably left her a bit on the chilly side. No worries. It wet our apetite to see more lava tubes and convinced us that the Ape Cave in St. Helens would be well worth a vist later in the tip.

With all of the stops and side trips, we only did a bit over 200 miles of purposeful travel on Day 3 of the trip.

We did stop and gander at the shoe tree at mile post 53 on Route 97, just out of Shaniko. Good shot of it here. When littering turns to art.

Once we got on the freeway, Valerie was busy on the iPhone checking out possible places to stop. The “Rufus Rocks” motel called to us to check out simply for the name alone. Turns out, it was under new management for the last few months as the “Hillview Motel”. All the better, since the friendly family that took over was renovating it room-by-room on their own. Wasn’t anything fancy, but, they were happy to have us as guests, even if we didn’t didn’t spring for one of the newly renovated rooms.

And it turns out, that was probably for the better.  After having a shower, Maia was running around nakey while I zoned out in front of the TV and Valerie had her turn in the shower.  Next thing I know, Maia starts hysterically yelling, “clean it up, clean it up” and she was jumping up and down while pointing at the floor.  I look over the edge of the bed and realize she’s pointing at a perfectly formed log of poo that was about the dimensions of her forearm. And, if you haven’t already glanced at your forearm and pondered that for a moment, needless to say, it was huge! Poor kid; no wonder she was hysterical. At least she had the good graces to drop it on the tile entry way instead of the carpet.

Don’t worry, I’m sure that room has been renovated by now…

Valerie is in Utah to put her grandfather to rest; may he rest in peace. In preparation for leaving, she practically spoon-fed me everything I’d need to get through the next 36 hours: 4 night diapers for the twins,  [...]]]> It’s 2039 hours and all the kids are finally in bed — not all asleep, but hopefully soon.

Valerie is in Utah to put her grandfather to rest; may he rest in peace. In preparation for leaving, she practically spoon-fed me everything I’d need to get through the next 36 hours: 4 night diapers for the twins,  4 sets of pajamas for the twins, pajamas & night pants for Maia, clothes for everyone to wear to the zoo tomorrow, and a fully stocked and prepped diaper bag ready to go — just add hot water. Ohh, and not to mention, she prearranged help to arrive in the evening to get all the kiddos through the bed-time routine. How could it possibly go wrong?

Enter: The Daddy.

I literally had an average of 1.5 kids screaming at me for the last 3 hours.

We got home from dropping Valerie at the airport around 1650. Not a minute afterward, Stella starts wailing. A fresh diaper helps a bit, and into the Boppy so Elise can get her turn on the changing table — which prompts Stella to immediately go to 11.  No biggie, a couple of bottles and all will be happy again. By the time the bottles are ready, there’s a 2-part harmony on the couch as I settle down and try to make amends; which are patently rejected.  Holding them to settle them down is not helping, so, off to the bouncer/swing and futile attempts at giving paci’s. No joy.

Quick departure from the twins to help Maia through the potty. Afterward, she wants some juice and I offer her a sippy cup of water since it was handy and I’ve still got 2 screaming babies to settle down. She makes her displeasure known by throwing the sippy cup — landing her straight into the corner for time out.

Perfect! Now I’ve got all 3 kids screaming at me. And, what do I do?  Straight to the fridge and crack open a beer and take a good long pull from it and ponder my navel for a minute.  Which, all joking aside about being an alchoholic, was just the medicine I needed.

At 1830, I’ve round-robined through the kids and gotten to the point that Stella is fed, in PJ’s, and in bed (screaming), Elise is nearly ready for bed and rubbing her eyes, and Maia is running around with drawers full of smelly filth asking for me to clean her bum — which I ignore and, bad parent that I am, privately tell myself she deserves to fester a while since she had passed up a perfectly good opportunity to deposit said filth in the potty just a few minutes prior.

Seeing that I’m on the down-hill slope and feel like I’m 2/3′s done with bed time, I call up Rebecca to see where she’s at. Oh, not out of the driveway yet; well, she can save herself the drive (and not a small one either!) — I think I’m good. After all, when I needed help the most was an hour ago…

Har! Har! Har!

Stella gets transferred into the swing in order to get Elise down into a moderately peaceful crib. Now to the spackle job in Maia’s pants and into PJ’s for her. Then back to Stella to check on her bum to determine if the source of her continued displeasure is gooey in nature — it was not. But, a fresh diaper is still needed. While tending to this, Maia declares she needs her bum cleaned a second time.  I thought she must be joking. No, no; she dropped a second bomb in her pants.

At which point, it dawns on me that had I not called Rebecca, the cavalry would be arriving any moment now.

Finally, all the bums are cleaned, and Maia is fed, I’m fed, and Stella has finally contented herself in my arm after ~3 hours of nearly non-stop sceaming since we got home.  And, all that screaming was good for something: she’s finally got the sleepy eyes. So off to the crib for her, which restarts the fussing the moment her head is down. So, we rock and she settles into her paci’. But, the toddler is very keen on coming in and out of the darkenend room, over, and over again — to the point that Stella is taking note and looking more alert because of it. Sorry kiddo, ready or not, into the crib a second time …

At 2018, Valerie calls — which was good timing as Stella had just cried herself to sleep shortly after putting her down. Maia gets to say good night to mommy and we brush teeth and read stories.  But, not her favorite book, Richard Scarry’s “Cars and Trucks and Things That go”. Her Aunty Chellie got her that for Christmas and she hasn’t wanted to read any other book since then. Which is great as it’s a powerful incentive to get her to do things — eat her dinner, clean up her room, sit still for teeth brushing, and now: going poo in the potty. You got it — as of tonight: if she poos in her pants, no favorite story before bed.

There’s a point to that long winded recap of the evening, and this brings me back to the original point of this post — how much my wife rocks. She handles all this hell chaos EVERY DAY! And most of the time, she makes it look easy. Granted, bed time is almost never done single handedly. But while I’m at work there’s all the same stuff going on and she still has a smile for me when I get home.

Thank you, Valerie, for making this family run so well.  I wouldn’t be able to do it without you!

To which, Valerie [...]]]> After Maia finished dinner last night, she was excused while Valerie and I finished up. A couple of minutes later, Maia ambled back in and said, “It’s time to put on PJ’s and brush teeth and read a story and lay down with Moosey and go night night. What do you think about that?”

To which, Valerie and I responded with unplanned, yet perfect unison, “THAT’S A GREAT IDEA!”

For the non-parents out there, let me just state that parenting is at least 75% dealing with the bodily functions of your children. There’s nothing sacred about it — so if you [...]]]> Today was day 3 of Maia’s potty training (revisited), and we have a new milestone:  it was her first accident free day wearing big-girl pants!

For the non-parents out there, let me just state that parenting is at least 75% dealing with the bodily functions of your children. There’s nothing sacred about it — so if you don’t want to hear a poo story, bail out now…

And to top it off, it was also her first time ever going poop on the potty.  Not just any potty, but, a full sized toilet in a public restroom. She wasn’t so keen on it at first, but, I made silly faces at her and she giggled and played for a minute. And then suddenly, she got very serious, and sternly said, “I have to go pee pee” and stared off into the distance. Then she grimaced and grunted, and tensed up, and grunted some more with a slight convulsion. At first I thought she was just being silly and trying to squeeze out a drop of pee, but the grunting and grimacing kept on for about 20-30 seconds and I suddenly felt slightly embarrassed — maybe she needed some privacy.

What could I do or say?  “Go Maia! Push! Push!” Or, maybe adapt the Lamaze breathing techniques for toddlers? “Take a big deep breath, now hold it and push for 5, 4, 3 keep pushing, 2, 1 … and relax.”  Uhhh, yeah….

So, I sat quietly and made no fuss. She finally relaxed and declared, “all done potty!”, and behold, there was a ripe brown trout in the pond. The paper work proved much more challenging than normal without 1) wet wipes and 2) a changing table, but, we managed.

As we stepped away from the toilet, the auto-flush kicked in and Maia looked over her shoulder and said, “bye bye poopy!”

All in a day’s parenting…

But, today started with a revolt followed by incessant bouts of giggling and screaming — combinations that do not lend themselves to relaxing for the call of nature. Ohh well, back in the diapers for a [...]]]> We gave potty training an earnest try yesterday. Maia batted a 429 for the day. Not a bad start.

But, today started with a revolt followed by incessant bouts of giggling and screaming — combinations that do not lend themselves to relaxing for the call of nature. Ohh well, back in the diapers for a while longer…

This 1 hour [...]]]> We recently installed a “night vision” camera in Maia’s room.  It’s been rather telling about what happens when we turn the light off and say “good night”.  Now we no longer have to wait for the tell tale sounds of toys to know she’s off on a mission gathering sundries to extend her wakefulness.

This 1 hour time lapse was today’s attempt to get her to nap. Valerie was busy tending to the babies, so, Maia had the run of her room.

Direct link to download here. (CTRL+click, “save link as”)

Note — as of this moment, the video is served from my DSL. I’ve seen that some players do not stream correctly, so, you may have to wait 1-2 minutes for it to download in the background and then play.

We awoke from our caboose cabin and Maia was happily asleep in her locker private room which gave Valerie and I a peaceful morning to ease into the day while the sun peaked over the mountainous horizon. When Maia awoke, she was excited to be [...]]]> At only 212 miles covered, day 2 was all about Crater Lake.

We awoke from our caboose cabin and Maia was happily asleep in her locker private room which gave Valerie and I a peaceful morning to ease into the day while the sun peaked over the mountainous horizon. When Maia awoke, she was excited to be in the train and after getting dressed she wanted to “ride train” while snacking on a granola bar. More than happy to oblige, I climbed up with her and sat on the opposing seat and we pretended our caboose was swaying down the track while making choo choo and whistle noises. Even Valerie gingerly climbed the rungs once to come play train with us. Incidentally, only a few cabooses have the upper level observation deck.

As we gathered the accouterments from the cabin and got the car loaded, Maia wanted to, “play stairs”. In true form, she managed to make a playground out of any available obstacle and kept herself entertained. This quality of hers is, after all, what really let us make this trip in the first place.

With the car mostly packed, we moseyed around the park and checked out the variety of cabooses they had. Maia started pouting when her “play stairs” session was so abruptly terminated by our walkabout

The park is nestled in a valley, and the Cascade mountains are all around. Although it was still smoky, this was the first day we’d seen blue sky in about two weeks.

We got on the open road and decided to get a few miles in and then stop for breakfast. Little regard beyond going north was given as to what road those miles would be covered on — the destination was, after all, breakfast. And indeed it was found when we stopped in Yreka at the Black Bear Diner. Turns out they are small chain throughout the west (38 stores), which is just fine by me as their 7-Grain Almond Granola Pancakes are worth going back for.

Back on the road, I asked Valerie to check the map and remind me what road we’d need to go to Klamath Falls. After a brief study, she responded confused that there’s no obvious reason to go to Klamath Falls. It quickly became clear the road we wanted was already well behind us. So, regarding that GPS purchase we debated about prior to the trip … yeah, it was looking like we’d chosen poorly. But, that’s another story.

We spied a small, unnamed road in the atlas that head more directly to Crater Lake. A quick check of the iPhone showed it did have a name: Dead Indian Memorial Road. Crisis averted!

Dead Indian Memorial Road to the 140 was a very lightly traveled, well maintain road that winds through the forest and proved to be a very pleasant drive. We were quite pleased to have missed the more direct routing of 97 through Klamath Falls.

Eventually, we made it to our intended destination. (The astute reader will note we arrived from the south. This was actually taken on the drive out of the park).

Crater Lake was largely inaccessible due to snow. We arrived at the main visitor center and Maia headed directly for the snow. She wasn’t all that interested in it during the winter, but now it was suddenly fun.

After Maia soaked her shoes enough, we were able to take in the view.

And then Maia found new obstacles to play on.

Did I mention there was still snow?

We stopped at one of the overlooks on the north side of the lake and had a nice picnic snack while Maia ventured off in search of more obstacles. What she got was a spank’n when she refused to stop going toward the road.

More Crater Lake photos in the gallery.

We had a short drive from the lake to Chemult where we had a most unfortunate reservation at the Dawson House Lodge. Let’s just say, pictures posted on the net don’t tell the whole story and hide lots of cleanliness sins that change one’s perspective upon arrival. It was across the street from a truck stop and the lack of AC made for a long night of jake brakes through the open window as the truckers came and went. To add insult to injury, there was only one restaurant open in town and they clearly had no worries about any competition. Diner was edible, but left plenty to be desired beyond that. Maia was the smartest of us — all she’d eat were pre-packaged Saltine crackers.

The best thing about Chemult, was leaving the next day.