Gone fishin'

Yep, that about sums it up!

This morning, at about 615 in the wee hours of the morning, Finn springs out of bed and, after a brief snuggle, asks to work on her spelling (she's always most creative first thing in the morning). I say sure, why not?! She disappears around the corner for a moment and I hear the click of the cupboard doors opening, some rummaging around, something that sounds like a bag of hundreds of little, muted clicks and scrapes. I wonder what the heck she's doing. Moments later, she comes determinedly around the corner, strides over to the table and plunks down the Bananagrams bag.

What Google thinks "Giiveakruzo" is...

At this point, brother is very into whatever it is sister's doing - it doesn't really matter what she's doing, he wants to be a part of it. They spill out the letters on the table then decide they don't have enough room to work so put them all back into the bag and set themselves to work. Little man throws himself wholeheartedly into working on his spelling (apparently he knows Russian?!) and spells out, in a very orderly manner, "Giiveakruzo" which means...well, I couldn't really understand what he very animatedly described to me that it meant. But that's OK because, in his mind's eye, it was totally profound (see another recent post on that, here). A quick Google search yielded the Russian translation for Robinson Crusoe. Given that epic adventure story, it wouldn't at all surprise me if in his breathless excitement and animated description, he just told me the whole thing in those 40 short seconds - that kid was on fire!

Speaking of which...

An early morning of spelling with Bananagrams.

The first thing Finn spells out is "The house is burned down" and I can't help but take pause after seeing it. Say what? How's that again? She smiles sweetly up at me, excuses herself from the table, skitters off back around the corner only to return a moment later with a pad of paper and a pencil - she's going to write down what she spelled out and take it in to show her teacher (and let me tell you, she's beaming with pride at that moment!). After satisfying herself that she transcribed her sentence correctly, she picks up her letters, places them back in the bag, mixes them all up (to which she appears to get great enjoyment out of) and draws out another handful. She puzzles over them for a moment, then starts spelling out something. She doesn't have all the letters she needs so I hear her bartering with LJ for some of his letters. It almost (aaalmost) descends into a sibling brawl but somehow, they right the ship, agree to the terms of their exchange, and both are once again satisfied. A moment later, Cat asks her what she's working on and she says, quite resolutely, "Finn is going fishing."

Alrighty then! Guess this girl knows her mind!

Given how much she's already expressed her love of fishing, I have a feeling we'll be seeing or hearing more of that phrase from her over the years.

Fish on...

The night fishin sheriff

 I hear little man making noise in his room long after bedtime so I go in and find...sister passed out, a lamp on, a measuring tape under the edge of his covers, his cowboy hat tossed in in the corner of his bed, his sheriff's badge and belt at his feet, his bow and arrow half unstrung, the arrow string tied around his knight's helmet, and a little boy peeking out at me from under the covers. He says to me, in ever so soft a voice and with a glint in his eye and a slight smile on his face, "I'm fichin (fishin), Papa."

What's a fisherman Papa to do?!

I half-heartedly scold him, turn out the light, tuck him in, kiss him on his head and tell him I love him. As I was typing this, I decided to check back in on him. In a matter of less than five minutes, he has totally sacked out but the butt of his 'fishing pole' is tucked under his back while the tip is still hanging, line and all, over the edge of his bed...still fishin.

That's enough to warm a fella's heart.

Moon Fishin'...and Jesus

From Dreamworks Animation

This morning my little guy comes to the door of my room at o'dark thirty and whispers, "Papa, I see Jesus fishin' outside." In a fog I say something to the effect of "huh?" He, hearing my confusion, asks to come in and snuggle and show me what he's talking about. I agree and he climbs up on my bed, standing at my head and looking out the window. He proceeds to whisper that I should join him in looking out the window at the quarter moon where Jesus has, apparently, been fishing all night...but I need to be very quiet so I don't scare him away. I rise to my knees, peer out the window at the waning crescent sliver of a moon and it looks beautiful in the clear night sky filled to overflowing with stars, the faintest of light starting to color the sky a deep, dark blue. Jeremiah says to me, "See Him, Papa?" I do not but that's OK. He does. And in his mind, that's really all that matters right now. I'm just glad I got to share this little moment with him.

A weekend at Drift Creek Camp

We spent last weekend with our Corvallis Mennonite Fellowship church family nestled into the deep woods of the Oregon Coast Range at a magical place called Drift Creek Camp. We had a wonderful time and wanted to share some pictures from the weekend with you. Just a great time to play indoors and out, fellowship with others, and spend some time together as a family. Love that place, my family, and our church family.

Giant splintered spruce.

Perspective.

Bananagrams

Inside looking out.

Watching the abilities variety show.

Hiking in the woods and coastal drizzle.

Closed USFS road into the wilderness. 

Watching grazing elk at Wapiti Park.

Collecting seashells on Taft Beach.

The salmon spine and the river.

Steelhead fishing Drift Creek.

Hooked on fishing and the great outdoors

On the mighty Willamette River!

Today, my daughter and I went on a date. Just to spend a little time together. Connect. Life's been a bit crazy for her since...well, since her brother was born, since mummy's business took off, since Papa went back to school, since she started at another school, since...you get the picture. When she was an infant/toddler, we used to get a lot of time just her and I. And we still get some time, but not enough to satiate either of our thirsts.

So we took half a day to just be together. And it rocked! Figuratively and literally.

Finding agates and quartz along the riverbanks.

After seeing me head out fishing several times in the recent weeks (early one morning here, late one afternoon there), she'd started asking me to take her steelhead fishing, too. And I had promised I'd find a time. Today was that time.

And let me tell you, she was excited!

Truth be told, so was I.

We packed her pole, my fly rod, some snacks, plenty of warm clothing and headed south along Highway 99 for places yet to be explored. We peered through the fog at geese hunkered down in foggy farmers' fields, played the animal guessing game, talked about school (and a bit of misbehaving in school last week), and just let the discussions ebb and flow as they may. After about twenty minutes, we found ourselves around Old River Road and decided to drive the back roads looking for a couple of County Parks that had thus far eluded us. In all the dense valley fog, they still eluded us. So we landed at one of our favorites, Irish Bend County Park.

We grabbed our gear and headed upriver toward a familiar gravel bar, wondering what adventure awaited us ahead. The water was running low for this time of year so we had our pick of spots along the bar. We found a spot that looked good and set down our gear. I asked Finn, "Are you ready?!" to which she replied, "Yep, but let's collect some agates first." So off we went in hot pursuit of semi-opaque rocks.

Oh the beautifully structured nonconformity of a gravel bar.

After a while of searching for and finding lots of various sized and colored agates and quartz crystals, we decided it was time to wet the lines. Finn set about her casting with aplomb, zinging her teardrop bobber and fly half way across the river with nearly every cast (she's been a pro caster since the age of 2!). Eventually she got her line a little fouled up and brought it to me to fix. I had her hold my fly rod while I untangled it. I could see her looking at my rod/reel with interest and she wondering aloud if she could fly fish sometime. I assured her she could and asked her when she'd like to try it to which she responded "Right now!" I asked her to wait for just a minute so I could finish untangling her line. I set about the task of releasing the knot in her line totally absorbed in my task only to be jolted back to reality with an incredibly piercing pain in my lip. I look down the bridge of my nose and am astonished to see a size 2X bullet head wooly bugger protruding from my lip, the recognition slowly dawning on me that this fly looks strikingly similar to one of the ones I have tied to my fly line. A fraction of a second later, the pain piercing my lip crescendos in rhythm as Finn continues whipping my fly rod around, wondering where the fly went.

It all happened so fast, I could hardly believe it. But there I was, attached to the end of my own fly rod at the hands of my beautiful daughter. I held the line firm, slowly tugged the hook to see how deeply it had set (it was fully through my lip) and hoped beyond hope that I had remembered to pinch the barb down. Luckily, I had so the extrication was without issue...except for the blood spurting from my lower lip. I looked up at Finn to see a look of shock, horror and mild bemusement on her face. I assured her that I was OK but it must have been met with disbelief as the look on her face wasn't one of comfort. We had a brief talk about listening to parents and unintended consequences, I washed my lip off and we both had a good laugh about it.

At this point, we decided to hang up the rods for the day, which was probably a good thing since it was so cold we'd had to keep breaking our lines free from our line guides as they would ice up every few casts. It was her first (but surely not last) experience with her line guides icing up. In her words, it was so cold, "It feels like my hands are dead! This is awesome!" But before we left, I wanted Finn and I sit down at the river's edge, in quiet, and just listen to the sounds for a few minutes...see where our minds wandered. I told her that this was one of my favorite things about being on the river, just letting my mind clear itself and wander. So we did. At one point, she asked me to close my eyes to listen. I obliged. Then we shared our thoughts. She was reminded of the sounds from a multi-day rafting trip down the John Day River a couple of years ago. I was washed over with emotion thinking about how much I love this wonderful creature that Cat and I brought into this world. She looked into my eyes, smiled, gave a muted giggle and hugged me.

Melt. My. Heart.

Listening to what the river has to say.

We beat feet back to Corvallis and I tried to convince her to have some spicy Mexican food with me but she had her heart set on a hand-spanked Painted Hills Natural Beef burger and fries from Block 15's menu. Reluctantly (riiiight!), I obliged. And was glad I did because the waitress captured a wonderful shot of Finn and me. We tweaked the image in Instagram because Finn wanted a "black and white, older look". We were both happy with the outcome. And I was pleased with the French Cognac barrel-aged Louis le Whopper craft beer I had with my spicy chicken grinder sammy and mushroom/sage soup of the day.

It was a winning day, all around. Gosh I love this girl...

Lunch date at Block 15. 

In answer to your question? No, this experience will not keep me from sticking more fish lips. But I AM glad that this little lesson for Finn seems to have stuck.

Camping - the three amigos

Setting sun over our camp - site A19, Moonshine Park.

I tend to get some quiet time now and again. Or, at least, time away from the family and to myself (I often fill it with things, though). But Cat rarely gets some of her own time...and has been needing it. Time to spend without the chaotic distractions that are a part of normal daily life in Western cultures. So, after looking at our mad-crazy summer calendards, we planned it.

I decided to take the kiddos on a 2-day, 1-night camping trip figuring that'd give her a couple of days of much-needed respite. We headed over to one of our favorite local, coast range spots, Lincoln County's Moonshine Park. When it's hot in the valley, it's always 10-15 degrees cooler there along the Siletz River. And with plenty of beaches and river to play on and swim in, paved trails to hike and ride bikes and scooters and miles of prime summer steelhead fishing, what more could we ask for?!

So off we headed, with just a tent, blankets, some food, and lots of outdoor toys. We fished, panned for gold, swam in the river, built forts in the woods, hunted for mushrooms, rode our bikes and scooters, read books, cut firewood, sat around the glowing campfire, and watched the stars.

Papa, the water strider jumped out!

Nothin' yet, Papa...

Happily passed out on the way home.

And we just drank each other in until, at days end, the kiddos passed out happily in the car on our way back to mummy.

I so love my children. And my wonderful friend, spouse, and partner. And perhaps the best part - we came back to a rejuvenated mums!

A double present

While preparing homemade Yumm! bowls for lunch for the family today, Finn comes up to me and says, very matter-of-factly,

"I have something I have to do for you today, Papa, and you probably shouldn't be here since it's a surprise. Maybe you should probably go out of the house for a little bit. Maybe you should go find Dan (Sobota) and go fishing for a little bit while I work on your surprise."

OK! Count me in! I get two presents in one! Now to go check the ODFW recreation report and river levels...

A Sea Change

This evening, I decided to take my four year old daughter on a date - a date with our history, the present, and our future.

So on the back of my bicycle she hopped, helmet, gloves, warm jacket, and all. And away we rode, off to LaSells Stewart Center on the Oregon State University campus to see "A Sea Change" - a movie about ocean acidification, moral and social responsibility, and the future. The film was showing as the culmination of the "Songs for the Blue Ocean", a symposium on Oceans and Ethics put on by the Spring Creek Project.

The film is a touching account of the relationship between a grandfather and his grandson and their interactions around the ocean - interactions they, and millions of others like them, may not be able to continue having if our oceans continue changing at the rate they currently are. Given that nearly 71% of our planet is covered by oceans, it's not surprising that our oceans are absorbing pollutants we put into our atmosphere - pollutants that include carbon dioxide (CO2), the focal chemical compound discussed in this film. The gist of the story is that as the oceans absorb carbon dioxide, they are becoming increasingly acidic - a process known as ocean acidification. And while this change in pH may be seemingly very small (akin to pouring a can of soda pop into a bathtub), it's becoming large enough that many of the ocean's critters, specifically the ones with calcareous shells, are unable to adapt - they are either unable to build suitable shells or their shells dissolve too fast - and, as a result, they are either already dying, or are likely to die (e.g., coral bleaching).

(Bleached elk horn coral; Flikr - World Resources)

While this may seem like heavy material for a four year old to digest, you might be surprised by how much they DO absorb - their minds are like little (non-calcareous) sponges. And the message was driven home by an experience we had midway through the movie during her restroom break. In the lobby, we bumped into Sven and Barbara, the writer and director couple from the movie. She couldn't believe her eyes that they were actually here - right in front of us. We visited for a few minutes, snapped a picture, then headed back to watch the rest of the movie.  We thoroughly enjoyed our time together and on the bike ride home, she melted my heart more than she has yet to date. We were riding home, well after dark, our bike lights flashing and casting curious shadows about, looking into the well-lit windows of OSU's Dixon Recreation Center when - after a moment of silence - she says to me "Papa? You take me to see some of the coolest things" and then was quiet again. I was so moved...speechless and full of love.

(Sven, Barbara, Jeremiah and Finn...who's acting shy in this picture)