Weekend Update

Happy Birthday Madeleine!
Our happy Roo-roo is now three years old, but not quite offically a "big" girl.

The not quite comes of the fact this child still thinks it is acceptable to have a poopy bum, so she will not yet be allowed to wear her new "Dora the Explorer" underpants. I believe the current standard, which was met by both Melissa and Michael at this age, is a week of dry pull-ups and regular pottying.

Parental rulings not withstanding, she still enjoyed her birthday immensely because of her new wooden xylophone, wooden recorder, and hand-made paper fan (given by Melissa).

Madeleine's Gifts


Madeleine's birthday guests included Gumpa and Attie Gail - who brought a chocolate cake and some new educational DVD's.

Madeleine's Cakes


Lynn Canyon Adventure
"We'll do just a short walk" - or - "Relief for Cabin Fever"

This weekend marked the end of two weeks of a self-imposed house-hold quarantine due to a seeming unending parade of runny noses, fevers, hacking coughs, coughing hacks (yours truly), a vasectomy, and out-and-out misery all round.

Yesterday morning, we declared a collective, "Enough!" and decided to venture out into the fall sunshine in search of some adventure. Our enthusiasm was paused momentarily by someone's cough - perhaps we should stick to just a small adventure. After all, people were still somewhat sick and I wasn't supposed to be doing anything like regular exercise for another week. But still, anywhere out of the house was better than staring at the same four walls again for yet another weekend.

The M's quit bouncing off the walls long enough to take in the news and shriek for joy. As we savoured our regained freedom, the possibilies that lay before us became endless, and Cheryl and I were forced to pause again. "Umm .. kids, where do you want to go?"

Michael: "We want to go back to the place with the little bridge!"

Melissa: "Yes, with the whooshing water!"

Us: "The dam? I guess we could go there."

Kids: "Yay!"

Then they started bouncing again - this time in search of coats and socks and shoes.

It took us ninety minutes to get out the door (which is a very poor showing compared to our our record 30 minutes), but we didn't care. We were going outside!

We paused again .. "Kids, we can't go to the dam this time. We have to go into town and pick up your Auntie Gail's car."

The Entire Back Row of the Caravan: "Awwww!"

Us: "We'll go to another river with whooshing water and a different bridge instead. You'll like it."

The Entire Back Row: "Okay."

So we drove off into what was earlier a sunny morning, but now was turning gloomier and gloomier.

Near the Trailhead


When we got to Lynn Canyon Park about forty minutes later, the sun had decided to make a reappearance and spirits picked back up again.

Of the oldest two M's, only Melissa remembered our last visit to the Lynn Canyon suspension bridge. Unlike our previous experience, she only hesitated for a moment and then stepped onto the gently swaying span.

On the Bridge


We were across in just a few minutes and then we headed into the forest. The light was magical and both Cheryl and I paused often to take pictures. The kids on the other hand were eager to explore the up-and-down trail.

Magical Light


On the Trail


We paused momentarily to let a herd of tourists pass us by and then we made our way to the Twin Falls Bridge.

Twin Falls Bridge


From the bridge we made our way down Lynn Creek along the bank.

Along the Creek


I'm not sure how far we got down the bank, but we found out it would be another 5 miles or so to the other end of the trail, so we had to turn around and come back. Along the way we stopped for a rest and some water.

Rest Stop



And then we hiked back up the stairs to the suspension bridge and back to our van.

Back to the Bridge