Sherpa

On Friday, the weather was amazing, so Sarah, Grace, and I hopped in the car and rode up to Mt Rainier National Park. We had borrowed a kid-carrier from our neighbors (thanks Kevin & Cindy) so that I could be a modern day sherpa for Grace, and planned on hiking around the Paradise Lodge area.  Paradise is the step off point for many climbers intending to summit Mt Rainier.  I have been there many times in late July and found the trails near there quite nice.  What I forgot was that we had a La-Nina year, so lots of snow - and even though it's nearly August, Summer has barely peaked it's warm head into the Pacific Northwest.  This resulted in the trails at Paradise being still covered in about 5 feet of snow.  We were in need of a quick plan B.

As it tuns out, our plan B worked quite well.  We stopped by Reflection Lakes, which weren't reflecting much that day, seeing as there was a nice breeze. 

 After the photo shoot, we headed down to lower elevation where the snow had melted clear.  From Cougar Rock Campground, we hiked along the Wonderland Trail for over a mile before stopping for lunch and then heading home.  

 Grace seemed to love the kid-carrier, as long as she was on my back.  Once I set her down, she quickly grew frustrated and wanted out.

This was our first (that's right, FIRST) time hiking sine Grace has been born.  It was a delightful experience for all and I think we all look forward to doing it again sometime soon.  

A Walker is on the Horizon

When Scott brought home a walker toy for Grace a couple months ago she didn't seem interested at all in it. She'd stand, holding onto the bar, but the second you tried to push her to take a few steps she either fussed loudly or simply sat down and crawled away. It's lived in our basement on the carpet, and Grace hasn't had much practice since we are never down there. Recently she started walking with us holding onto only one of her hands but is still rather wobbly and slow. Well, the other night I had Grace downstairs as I was loading and unloading the endless laundry and decided to give the walker another try. To my surprise, she took two laps around the couch and furniture. For those of you that haven't seen our basement or our couch, it's a pretty large space. Over the past couple of days she's really gotten a hang of it and frequently lights up and giggles at her new ability.

Water Park Fun

We spent this past Sunday afternoon after I got off work at Wright Park and its new water attraction. First time we took Grace and she was a bit overwhelmed. I think it was a combination of hoards of screaming kids and splashing water. She got used to as we were there and we are excited to take her back...if the sun will ever come out around here longer than a single day every couple of weeks. The Pacific Northwest has certainly had a poor summer, although compared to the rest of the nation's heat wave I suppose I should be happy. But I can't help it, I love the hot sun. The trip to the park would not be complete without Grace having a turn in the swing...her favorite. I also included an updated pic of the baby bump. Sure shows much sooner the second time around! I'm now almost 15 weeks pregnant and feeling really great for the most part.

Un-breaking

Just how did Grace get those in there in the first place?

Breaking Stuff in New Ways

When you have children you have to be mentally prepared for things to get broken. The hard part is in un-breaking them when you needed to be out the door 5 minutes ago and if you don't it means you leave the home unlocked.

Bear Crawl

Grace loves to bear crawl. She bear crawls all over the house and the yard. Specifically, she bear crawls to go get the strawberries that are ripening in our flower bed. She crawls there over and over again. Earlier this summer, she beat us to the strawberry plant and tried to pick the strawberry and eat it. Unfortunately for the plant, Grace picked not only the strawberry, but most of the plant as well. Since then, we've been much more diligent about getting to her before she gets to the unpicked berries.

Day Trip to Sequim

Donna, Grace and I took a short day trip to Sequim last Wednesday. The plants were just starting to bloom in the lavender capital of North America and it was quite a site to capture on camera. Grace took her two naps of the day in the car taking up most of the 2 hour drive there and back and she loved the farms. Not surprising since the one thing that soothes her when she's grouchy or fussy is to just simply be outside no matter the weather. We decided to go during the week instead of battling the crowds during the official festival weekend. We had most of the farms to ourselves, able to visit with the farm owners, not to mention browse all the many fabulous smelling lavender made products in the gift shops and enjoy a nice lunch at a local cafe complete with lavender soda and lemonade to drink and lavender white chocolate cheesecake. Yum. More pics on our Picasa page: https://picasaweb.google.com/scott.templin/LavenderFestival71311

Mountain Climber

Lately, even though Grace has yet to walk unassisted, she is climbing like a rock star. She will try and get up and onto anything low enough for her to lift a leg onto. For now this means the heights to which she ascends is quite limited - mostly to the stairs. While we were in Denver, Grandma and Grandpa Hesseltine worked with Grace climbing up and down the stairs in their home. In the time since, Grace has become a natural, as exemplified in the video.

Grace will also climb into (and unfortunately out of) the bath tub. She has also recently decided she likes to climb her car seat. This is fine, dandy, and cute as long as the car seat is in the house. As you can see in the photos below, Grace has a great time playing peek-a-boo from the bucket. Interestingly, this is the view Sarah had the other day when driving down the road. It took only milliseconds to realized Grace had been put into the car seat, but not strapped down. Does this make us horrible parents? Only if we let it happen again!

Baby Templin #2

It's official. We are 13 weeks pregnant. These are the photos from the ultrasound at around 8 weeks. No, we don't know if it's a boy or girl - and no, we won't be finding out before the birth. Sarah is due on the 13th of January - but with her history of being about 2 weeks early, I'm hoping for a birth in the waning days of 2011 - tax break!

Heavy Metals

Tacoma's history is rooted in lumber and industry. Near where our house is located, a copper smelter was operated for almost 100 years. Native residents of Tacoma are quite familiar with the history behind the ASARCO smelter, the jobs & revenue it brought to the city, it's closure in 1986, demolishment in 1993, and the legacy of arsenic and lead which the smoke stacks layered into the soil of the surrounding areas. I say "native residents are familiar" because when Sarah and I decided to buy our home, being transplants, we were clueless to the history & controversy of the land. As has been shown on 60 Minutes, ASARCO has been found responsible for environmental pollution at 20 Superfund sites across the U.S. - including the one on Commencement Bay, here in Tacoma.

Now before anyone goes and starts thinking we live on some sort of radioactive wasteland, let me tell you, none of us has grown webbed feet, can shoot lasers from our eyes, or any of that other cool X-Men stuff. If fact, the threat (or at least perceived threat) is quite low. Even so, as a result of a law suit a few years ago, the Army Cops of Engineers was commissioned to provide soil sampling tests and soil remediation (if required) for all homes within a specified area around the old smelter. Our home lies a mere 200 yards inside of that boundary, and when we got a letter in the mail asking if we wanted our soil tested - we responded YES.

We live near the red star.

That letter came in January of 2010. The soil sampling didn't happen for another 6 months. We received the results from those tests just 5 days short of 1 year after the sampling. Who said the government works on it's own time?

To backtrack a bit, this whole thing got me thinking, "Is there an acceptable amount of arsenic?" The answer is a bit more complicated than yes/no, but here's a little bit of info for the geek types out there. The EPA, to my understanding, has no statute regarding the levels of Arsenic in soil, only water. However, it is generally accepted that The concentration of arsenic in soil varies widely, generally ranging from about 1 to 40 parts of arsenic to a million parts of soil (ppm) with an average level of 3–4 ppm. The Army Corps of Engineers set their remediation limits (remediation for the Corps of Engineers essentially consisted of removal of the contaminated dirt, and back-filled with "clean" dirt and grass seed) at 23o ppm. I expected the worst thinking we would be high, around 200, but under the limit.

Results? Our soil is too clean for remediation. As it turns out - we aren't all that bad. Our highest sector tested at 44 ppm with an average right at 30 ppm. Our soil was also tested for lead, remediation standard of 500 ppm - our average was in the low 70's.

What do we do now? Basically, we follow the same procedures your mom told you any time you had been playing outside: leave your shoes at the door and wash you hands!

"Tacoma Smelter Plume" Information from King County Health Services:

http://www.kingcounty.gov/healthservices/health/ehs/toxic/TacomaSmelterPlume/background.aspx

More information than you ever wanted from the EPA: http://yosemite.epa.gov/R10/cleanup.nsf/sites/ASARCO

The contractors hired by the Army Corps of Engineers - at work sampling our yard.

A calibrated aluminum digging pole. The canister was approximately 6" deep by 2 1/2" wide

it was a requirement to test ALL soil locations - even in the flower beds...

These guys were pretty good at leaving a minimal footprint. After the hole was dug, it would be filled with "clean" dirt, and the grass patch flipped back on top leaving virtually no indication of the sampling process.

This is what a "remediated" yard looks like during the process. By my estimation, in a 1/2 mile radius form our house, about 1 in 20 homes got all or part of their yard remediated.

Exploration Continues

Grace is getting into more and more things. Notice the two completely empty shelves. As much as I don't want to put all this stuff away for the third time in two days... I secretly hope her curiosity has no bounds.

Fireworks Preparations

Sarah and I both LOVE fireworks. We think they are pretty much the bee's knees, and the awesomest part of any celebration, especially the anniversary of America's birthday - the 4th of July. Since we bought our house, if we are in town, we always go outside of Tacoma proper and buy fireworks. You see, the sale or lighting of fireworks in the city of Tacoma is illegal. I'm not one to willy nilly break laws, but this one is just worth the risk of getting a fine. Besides, most laws exist because someone did something stupid and then expect the government to pony up for their idiocracy. By properly mitigating the inherent and obvious risks involved with fireworks, and taking responsibility for our actions - we can break the law, see a nice show, AND have a good time. The fireworks displayed above is our haul for this year. Lots of bang and sparkle, and way under budget. Sarah purchased them while on an errand run in the town of University Place, which abuts the southern border of Tacoma, not 3 miles from our house. (Does anyone else see the ridiculousness of this juxtaposition?)

Every year the fireworks change. Sarah and I generally go for the spinners and the fountains. Anything other than sparklers that you have to hold in your hand is just stupid. Bottle rockets not only are a bad deal - they set fires in places you aren't supervising. Generally I think we get a great deal for the entertainment value. I don't care too much for the effort that goes into the artwork on the packaging, I'm more interested in the show we will get after the fuse is lit. Conversely, I'm a sucker for a great name, generally involving a pun. It seems like firework designers are in the same marketing class as wrestlers and monster truck teams. The more ridiculous the pun - the more likely I am to be a fan.

Sarah hit the jackpot with a best new find of the year in the Exploding Bin Laden Noggin. It was only a matter of time before someone capitalized on the death of this infamous individual - I had no clue it would be for fireworks.

A package of 6 was a steal at $5.99

How NOT to hold a firework after it's been ignited

I think the "PERFORMANCE DESCRIPTION" really says it all

Family Reunion 2011

Two weeks ago, in Calamus, Nebraska, the annual Morse Family Reunion was held and relatives showed up en-mass. It was three days and two nights of hanging out with fun people we pretty much only ever get to see at the reunion. Lots of merriment and story telling occurs and you learn stuff about you in-laws that may only ever come out of their own mouths on their death beds. This year was extra special because we brought our newest addition to the family. Grace is the 26th great grand child - and at only a year old, she is the 4th youngest. As I've said before, this is quite a switch from my family, where I have more grandparents than cousins. The photo above is only about half of the attendees. We are gathered for the float down the Calamus River (Google Map)

As part of the annual reunion, there are competitions where each family (teams are based on the Morse siblings) battles for the honor of being the most awesome. Games are rediculous and entertaining. This year, all games were "spud" themed and every competition involved a potato or potato product of some sort. Although the Hesseltine Krewe didn't pull out the win this year, I look forward to my shot at grabbing the trophy next year.

Check out all the photos: Morse Family Reunion 2011

Four generations at one time!