Free Range Mama

offf 2011

We all drove down to Canby, Oregon on Friday for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. It was a bit of a miracle that we got out the door at all considering how totally unprepared we were, but somehow we got the trailer and all our stuff packed in the morning and were on the road not too far behind schedule. It’s a long drive, with traffic, and we were all pretty tired when we got to the fairgrounds, but we wanted to get as much of the booth set up as possible so that we wouldn’t have to rush in the morning. The kids were not very excited about this, however, so we only got as far as having the tent up and the tablecloths on before we called it a night.

Saturday was fantastic. We arrived early (minus the kids who stayed with their grandparents), and got everything completely set up with about 3 minutes to spare. Here’s what the booth looked like when we opened…

The weather was perfect, there was a great crowd of customers and old friends coming through, and we had a really fabulous time. The only dark spot was hearing about some shoplifting occurrences in some of the booths. It just sickens me that anyone could shoplift at an event like this. It’s not even like they are taking food to feed their starving children, they are stealing luxury / artisan yarns from hardworking independent (and undercompensated) business owners, and there just isn’t any excuse for it. Ugh.

In the evening, the kids were at Autumnal Equinox party with the grandparents, so Chris and I went to the Cornelius Pass Road House on the way home and had a lovely dinner.

Sunday I got out of the booth a bit more, made it to the fleece sale, the barns, visited the other vendors and watched a few demos. The kids were with us, so they explored quite a bit – especially the visiting the animals, which are their favorite. Our booth is nicely located under a shady tree, and right in front of the big lawn, and the musicians tent, so we got a little entertainment right in our ‘front yard’.

We knew some rain was coming, however, and we had done a bit of prep for it, but we had no idea. Basically around mid-day the skies opened up and we had a torrential downpour, with thunder and the whole bit.  It drenched me completely just in the time it took to get around the tent and put the tarps up. We got rained on last year at this event too, and it was such a drag. The rain drips through the tent, splashes mud up from the ground, and of course drives the customers away so nothing gets sold, either. 

So there I am, soaked, looking like a drowned rat, just shuffling from corner to corner in the booth (which is now a total mess) trying to protect things from getting ruined, and sending the kids off on errands so that we don’t have 5 people huddled in the same tiny space. Here’s Chris amid the chaos…

Shoppers fleeing for the shelter of the indoor marketplaces…

Yes, it was funny at times, but not exactly what we came for. Fortunately wet wool will dry (though we had to reprint some labels) and we didn’t damage any paper products. It was also fortunate that the rain stopped by the end of the show, so we didn’t have to get soaked packing the trailer. After the packing and the drive, we got home around midnight. Wiped out!

lady washington

Alex got the opportunity today to take a ride on the Lady Washington, a historic replica ship located on Elliot Bay. We had done this a few years ago and it was a lot of fun and very informative, but this time Z decided not to go along so it was just Alex with his friends instead of the three of us going together.

We arrived a bit early, so we had time to walk around the park, and check out the boat a little bit. Alex is a fan of the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, so he was delighted to learn that this ship appears in the movies.

We also had time to take a stroll around the Center for Wooden Boats and view some of the other boats in their collection.

Alex would be riding with some friends, so we all met up before boarding, and the kids who were riding got on…

and the ones who weren’t came with me to see them off and wave from the dock.

We also got to see some other interesting things from the dock, such as all of the float planes taking off and landing from nearby Kenmore Air.

This one was particularly interesting.

Afterwards, I took the girls home where they had lunch and a few hours to play before ballet class, while the boys finished sailing.

high ropes course

There is a high ropes course at a local park that has always intrigued us, so when Alex got an invite to try it out, we jumped at the chance.

By “we” I mean Alex, because I wasn’t eligible, and Z was not interested in the slightest. She was happy enough to go to the park, ride her bike, play with our friends’ Chihuahua… but no interest at all in the ropes course.

Back at the ropes course, Alex had completed the ‘team building exercises’ part and ascended the first tower.

Apparently being up there was way more terrifying than it had looked from the ground, and he had a few false starts before going across in the company of one of the instructors.

He made it across the first span, but then pretty much decided he’d had enough for one day and didn’t want to go across the second one. The higher course was out of the question, though he was a bit sad about it when he saw the cool flying-fox thing they used to get down. He says he’d like to try again in the future, though.

The bike part went a bit better. We don’t ride much, so this was really Z’s first chance to really try out her bike without training wheels. She picked it up really quickly and and was pedaling away from me in no time.

big four ice caves hike

We took a trip with some homeschool friends out to the Big Four Ice Caves in the Alpine Lakes wilderness. It is a pretty quick and easy hike, but a fun treat to see a big pile of snow on a hot summer day.

 

Z took a nasty fall and scraped up her leg pretty badly on the way down, but fortunately she brought her Girl Scout first aid kit, and we managed to get her bandaged up enough to limp out of there.

wrapping up summer

It has been a crazy whirlwind of activity around here, trying to squeeze the most out of the last few weeks of summer (and some rare sunny weather). Highlights have included The Evergreen State Fair, Blueberry picking, and a day at Bumbershoot the famous Seattle Music and Arts Festival.

We saw a few good bands,

but the kids weren’t as into just hanging out and enjoying the music quite as much as I would have been. They did like the food, the vendors, and the street performers, though - and of course the first rate peoplewatching.

The fountain was a big hit, especially as it was actually hot enough to run through it without worrying about being freezing afterwards.

I even took the dare to run up to touch the dome.

A few days later, we attended our homeschool group’s “Not Back to School Picnic” though on the same day we actually started fall classes. Even though my kids don’t technically go to school, they have enough classes, sports, and activities going on during the academic year to *almost* feel like they do, and give the start of the school year a bit of significance, anyway. Our schedule changes quite a bit in September, though fortunately it doesn’t all start at the same time, so we have a chance to ramp up, rather than just jump in.