Pinewood Derby Drama

October 29, 2015 By

The Pinewood Derby. Every Cub Scout’s dream. Every father’s worst nightmare.

To let you know Bode’s pedigree: As a kid, Jamie won first place locally and his brother Chris competed against hundreds of cars to win regionals. The Pinewood Derby is serious business for the Johnson clan

This year, my boys were in it for the win. They researched YouTube videos for the best strategies and implemented a risky three-wheeled design with purposely bent axles and a rail-riding strategy.

There were four lanes so each car raced once in each lane.  I joked to our friends I wouldn’t tell them which car was ours unless we won. 

He triumphed in the first heat.

And his second.

He dominated the third.

And won the fourth heat for a clean sweep.

We assumed he’d win best overall average because he beat every car (including the overall winner) but in the end, he took second place–the difference between first and second place was a mere 0.03 seconds.

That night before bedtime for scriptures and prayers, I read a touching story from the Friend, the Church’s children’s publication. It was about a father obsessed with winning the Pinewood Derby. They were on track to go to the winner’s bracket when his 8-year-old son pulled him aside and told him he was supposed to go head-to-head with a boy with disabilities who hadn’t won any heats.

“Dad, we need to do something to my car to make sure Steve wins.”

The dad was humbled by his son’s gesture so ruined the alignment on the car. Steve was thrilled to win the race and there were two winners that day.

After reading the story, there was a long pause. Was my sweet, thoughtful boy as touched as I was about this kid who gave up the chance to be in the winner’s circle so another could win?

Bode finally responded, “Oh, let’s not do that.”

He’s more like his father than I thought.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor, Jamie, LDS

Devil’s Head Tower Lookout’s Cut of Fall Heaven

October 27, 2015 By

I’ve wanted to do the 2.8-mile round-trip hike to Devil’s Head Tower Lookout for several years. As one of the last of the seven original Front Range Lookout towers still in service, this hike is a popular one but it’s a 1.5 hour drive from our house. Finding time and willing participants have been issues so 1) we raced over late afternoon after church and 2) I bribed my family to go.

I loved everything about this hike and one advantage of leaving later in the day was we almost had this hike to ourselves. This hike was a new favorite.

From the views of the Rampart Range along the way.

To the fall colors.

To the fascinating tornado takedown.

To the 143 steps to get to heaven.

To the 103-year-old lookout tower that is listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

If you’re in the Denver area, this hike is a must. And worth the bribes to get there.

Filed Under: Colorado, Family travel, hiking, outdoors

The 245th Annual Giant Pumpkin Party

October 26, 2015 By

I’ve lost track of how many pumpkin parties we’ve thrown in honor of the Great Pumpkin but it seems like a lot. Despite a lackluster growing season, Jamie managed to produce a respectable beast that weighed 747 pounds. It was almost half the size of Stanley from 2012:

But still impressive. And without Stanley’s sour expression.

 

In years past, we’ve admitted only pumpkin treats for the party but I staged a coup and opened up the menu so our 50 guests brought a delicious variety of fall dishes. Jamie complained until I made his favorite caramel apple squares…and then he shut right up.

Someday, our friends will tell stories of that crazy Johnson family that grew giant pumpkins and threw a party in their honor.

And we’ll tell stories of our friends who were crazy enough to come.

 

Filed Under: Humor, Jamie, pumpkins

Our Halloween Mystery

October 22, 2015 By

We have had some paranormal activities Chez Johnson that are wreaking all sorts of havoc and sending a shiver down my spine.

Our ghost first put holes near the top of our blinds. Then, the florescent light cover in our kitchen not only crashed to the ground but these spirits somehow carried it all the way to the garbage can outside. And don’t get me started on the jar of peanut butter that floated to the basement, the most minor of the trespasses but still a head-scratcher.

All of these situations have been met with the  doe-eyed innocence of our kids. “Mom, I have no idea how that happened” or “maybe it was Fat Kitty,” which makes me seriously worry about their power of persuasion if they’re trying to convince me that our obese, declawed cat could become airborne (though peanut butter might be a good motivator).

To their credit, they haven’t turned each other in but when you’re only one of two siblings, the odds are not ever in your favor. We’ve repeatedly trying to instill within them that lying is worse than the actual crime but to no avail.

I have yet to catch them red-handed but got a kick out of toddler Jack’s blue-faced lie about the free cupcake he’d swiped in a celebration for the New York Giants.

The good news is that we are making some progress. I’m not sure about the topic in my daughter’s Sunday School class last week but she finally confessed to her teacher, “YES, IT WAS I WHO TOOK THE PEANUT BUTTER TO THE BASEMENT AND ATE DIRECTLY OUT OF IT WITHOUT A SPOON.”

If only the trespasses of my little spirits could always remain so innocent.

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor

Sixth grade’s archer-killing zombies

October 21, 2015 By

Ahhh, sixth grade. It truly was the highlight of my scholastic career. We were rulers of the school, I dominated both sports and academics and I looked like a complete dork but nobody cared.

Kindergarten: Still cute (though our 1970s couch and wallpaper were hideous).

How I LOVED The Rescuers

Sixth grade: Not Cute.

 

Luckily for Hadley, she’s not going through my awkward stage and her transition back to our elementary school has gone smoothly. The good: Her bestie Alex is in her class and they’ve been inseparable since school began.  The bad: some of Alex’s longtime school chums aren’t always the nicest.

I’ve tried to shield Hadley but fortunately she’s either clueless or just doesn’t care to get wrapped up in the drama. When our girls were invited to their Halloween Party, my friend Lisa (Alex’s mom) and I put a kibosh to that by throwing a soiree of our own and inviting some friends from church.

Something tells me I have a lot of avoid-drama-by-throwing-parties in my future.

Lisa and her husband went out of town a couple of weekends ago so I offered to let Alex stay stay with us, which was pretty delightful until they begged me to go Halloween costume shopping. Originally, Hadley and Alex wanted to be Thing 1 and Thing 2 from Dr. Seuss until their little clique convinced everyone they needed to be Archers.

And then I convinced them back that they could be any darn thing they wanted.

In the end, Hadley still wanted to be an archer because she really does like archery and Alex was undecided when we entered the Halloween shop. I’ve complained about shopping with Hadley because she hates 99% of what she sees but when she finally finds something she likes, there’s no going back. Almost immediately she latched onto a costume she loved.

Alex is quite the opposite and likes everything and could decide on nothing. Finally, I convinced her that she simply could not live another day unless she was a Zombie Bride.

 

I texted my predicament with the polar-opposite shoppers to Lisa and she responded, “And both will drive you nuts.”

Amen.

 

Filed Under: Hadley

Oh Canada: The edition not in Canada

October 20, 2015 By

When you drive 3,000+ miles alone with the kids, there are certain stretches of road that you dread. Mine is the 11-hour drive from Vernon, B.C. through the wastelands of Washington and Oregon before landing in Boise.

The bad: Waking up at 4 a.m. to drop Jamie at the Kelowna airport for his 6 a.m. flight.

The good: There were no suicidal, cliff-jumping cows like last year.

The debatable: Whenever we’ve passed Dry Falls in years past, there’s always been a lot of cars so we pulled over at this pitstop in Central Washington. We learned Dry Falls was once five times the size of Niagara Falls.  During the Ice Age. I’m not sure if this was a letdown or fascinating marketing about an enormous waterfall that is no longer there.

Boise

Once we finally arrived in Boise, we overnighted with my former mission companion Katie’s family. The kids pressured me to play BeanBoozled (the worst game ever) where we ate such memorable jelly bellies like booger. Grass. Vomit. And those were the good ones.

Fortunately, the rest of our visit wasn’t nearly as traumatic.

Twin Falls

From there, we did a slight detour to play in the Snake River  with my friend Jenny near Twin Falls. Driving along I-84, I thought this area was an arid wasteland but how very, very wrong I was. Unlike Dry Falls (read: NO FALLS), Shoshone Falls is 212 feet high–45 feet higher than Niagara Falls and at its peak, it flows over the rim 1,000 feet wide.

My outdoorsy kids met their match (and were exceeded) with Jenny’s wonderfully wild Idaho kids.

Here, Bode is playing with one of her twins in the Snake River in a stirring portrait I call “Synchronized Mud Flinging.” His sister (on the receiving end) had another name for it.

Salt Lake City

I wish we could have stayed longer but it was onto Utah for a quick two days with Jamie’s wonderful family where the kiddos snuggled with their cousin Darby for the first time.

And I sneaked in a quick hike to the Living Room in my former home.

Normally we’ll stay in Salt Lake City for several days but we were crunched on time. Bode was staying an extra week with Grandma and flying home by himself while Hadley and I were racing back so she could climb her first 14er.

I’m so grateful for our many friends, family and adventures we had–it truly was the summer both my kids learned to fly.

===

In case you missed our other Canadian adventures this summer:

Oh Canada: The Lethbridge Edition

Oh Canada: The Canada Day in Raymond and Waterton Edition

Oh Canada: The Calgary Edition

Oh Canada: The Banff/Canmore Edition

Oh Canada: The Lakehouse Edition

Oh Canada: The Kettle Valley Railway Trail Edition

 Oh Canada: The Edition Not in Canada

 

Filed Under: Bode, Family travel, Hadley

Oh Canada: The Kettle Valley Railway Trail Edition

October 19, 2015 By

Summer 2014 after we returned home from our Vernon, B.C. vacation, my friend posted about her family’s experience biking the Kettle Valley Railway (KVR). As they passed over soaring trestle bridges and tunnels that looked like something from a Grimm fairy tale, I mused “where is this place?”I couldn’t believe it was in Kelowna, merely 30 miles away from  our lakehouse. I became obsessed!

On one of our cooler days last summer, my dad, brother Jade and his two boys Jaxson and Connor joined my family for what was truly the most unique experiences I’ve ever had on two wheels. Originally built at the turn of the last century, the economic importance of the railway line decreased in later  years and by 1990 the last of the railway line was abandoned. Fortunately it was converted from rail to trail between 2003 and 2008, and re-salvaged after the Okanagan Mountain Park Fire claimed 12 of the trestle bridges. 

We biked one of the most famous and scenic sections–the 12 mile (24 km) round-trip portion of Myra Canyon to Ruth Station section that passed over 18 trestle bridges and through two tunnels. Thanks to the 2 percent rail grade to accommodate the steam train technology of the day, this section is an easy hike or an awesome bike ride for families with kids. But not too young because I was admittedly gripping my handlebars a bit tighter every time we crossed a steep trestle hanging preciously on the sides of Myra Canyon.

At every turn, my mouth stood agape at the views of Kelowna and Okanagan Lake as the forest cast a pale-green lambent light.


I’d spent more than a year building up this ride in my mind and it exceeded every expectation. However I felt a letdown when it was over, musing “now what?”Until I learned that this small portion of the Kettle Valley Railway Trail is part of  a 600 kilometer (360 mile) trail system that passes through vineyards, orchards, forests, lakes, deserts and mountains.

Guess what I’ll be doing next summer.

======

In case you missed our other Canadian adventures this summer:

Oh Canada: The Lethbridge Edition

Oh Canada: The Canada Day in Raymond and Waterton Edition

Oh Canada: The Calgary Edition

Oh Canada: The Banff/Canmore Edition

Oh Canada: The Lakehouse Edition

Oh Canada: The Kettle Valley Railway Trail Edition

 Oh Canada: The Edition Not in Canada

Filed Under: Canada, Family travel, travel

The Real Scariness of my Goosebumps Pre-screening Party

October 14, 2015 By

Last March, I was invited to host a pre-screening for “Cinderella,” which was a rather magical experience to see this classic with so many close friends.

Well, this generous movie promotion company contacted me again last week, but this time to host a pre-screening for Goosebumps.

I wasn’t familiar with this series that has sold more than 400 million books worldwide until Bode requested them for his birthday last summer and he has been counting down the days until the movie came out. Well, imagine how popular I was when I told him I was hosting a VIP pre-screening of the movie. Not only could he invite all his friends but they’d get to see it before it was released to the public on Friday. Mother of the Year!

I had 162 seats to fill and the promotion company generously threw in popcorn and a drink to everyone in attendance, not to mention Goosebumps T-shirt and swag giveaways. I only had five days to pull this together so I sent an email to friends first, planning to promote it to the general public the next morning but within a few hours, most of the seats were filled, many of which with friends. I capped it at 148 so I’d have some wiggle room for cancellations and add-ons.

And then I spent five days stressing. What if I didn’t have enough seats to accommodate everyone? What if there weren’t very many people who showed up? I was tweaking the list until the very last minute but amazingly, there were only two families that were no-shows. And then I had several “yes” shows thanks to Bode who didn’t tell me he was inviting several friends from school, which I would have been fine with if I’d had their RSVPs but they just showed up at the theater. Thankfully, there was room–not much but just enough.

The Boys

As for my take on Goosebumps? Delightfully fun and with a PG-rating, it was just scary enough without being over-the-top. However, there were definitely a lot of scary elements because the entire premise of the movie  is about R.L. Stine’s (Jack Black) dangerous creatures coming to life from his books.  I spent the entire time fretting it was traumatizing the younger kiddos. Forget the clown–Slappy, the ventriloquist’s dummy, was creeeeeepy.

I need not have worried because most everyone seemed to have a great time but no one more than Bode’s buddies. If there is a demographic for this movie, it’s 9-year-old boys. His friend Noah raved, “That was the best movie I’ve seen in a looooooong time” and Bode endorsed, “It was so much better than ‘Cinderella.’”

Of course, the true indicator is if anyone had spooky dreams that night. I sure did. I feverishly dreamed I didn’t have enough seats to accommodate everyone.

We all have our nightmares.

Filed Under: Bode, Humor

Ford’s #ExploreMore Tour from Durango to Albuquerque

October 13, 2015 By

A few weeks ago, I participated in one of the final legs of Ford’s 22-day Platinum Tour that stretched for over 2,000 miles from Vancouver to New Mexico. Though there were certainly more beautiful stretches (particularly through the Canadian Rockies and Jackson Hole), I selected to drive their new high-end Platinum Explorer from Durango, Colo. to Albuquerque, NM for the simple reason I’d never done it before.

Or so I thought.

Though Colorado is neighbors with New Mexico we haven’t made a road-trip down south, for the primary reason of why would we go there instead of our beautiful state? Yes, I’m a wee bit biased.

I talked about how I’d never been to New Mexico to my fellow travelers when I started to share a story of backpacking the Gila Wilderness with some friends during my single days and then I realized the horrifying truth: The Gila Wilderness is in New Mexico and I’d been lying to myself and everyone. Apparently, I need a refresher course in geography.

However, I’ve never explored this cut of it and it was a tour like no other.

Head over to Mile High Mamas to follow our adventures in Ford’s new top-of-the-line Explorer–from their multi-contour massage seats to cooked frog…it was a trip to remember!

Filed Under: travel

Victory at the Scarecrow Festival!

October 12, 2015 By

Usually this time of year, we’re entrenched in all-things pumpkin but due to a dismal season, we’ve all been lukewarm about it. Jamie lost one of his plants early-on and and has had a myriad of problems with the other–from our irrigation system breaking for a week to the neighbor’s dog (literally) eating the pumpkin’s flower.

This stuff ain’t for the faint of heart.

Jamie has put all his normal pumpkin-growing energies into BYU football, and after listening to what feels like 100 hours of BYU Sports Nation’s commentary (he listens to it daily), it almost makes me miss the pumpkins.

Yes, you heard me correctly. Hell hath finally frozen over.

Jamie’s other surviving pumpkin is small but due to a warm fall, he has kept it on the vine for three weeks longer than usual because it’s still slowly growing. He’ll take it to a weigh-off in Colorado Springs this weekend.

The kids’ pumpkins are about half the size as normal. Hadley’s pollinated later but she tended her patch waaaaaaaaay better than Bode and weeded it regularly; Bode’s weeds got to the point they were basically strangling the vines. I tried to help him weed one day but I think we did more harm than good so Hadley surpassed him.

Usually the kids enter their pumpkins in the same Giant Pumpkin Commonwealth-sanctioned events as Jamie but since he’s holding off, we haven’t done any of these festivals this year. The one we can’t miss is our town’s giant pumpkin weigh-off and I’m so glad we did because when we arrived, there were only two other pumpkins and then ours.

Those, my friends, are good odds.

The only other competition was a woman who grown had two beautifully round and orange pumpkins that weighed in around 40 pounds so they saved the kids’ for last. I had to chuckle as the crowd that gathered, marveling “those are big pumpkins” and we muttered back “these aren’t big pumpkins.”

See? We’re ruined for life.

Bode’s pumpkin weighed 170 pounds while Hadley’s was 189 pounds, which is a pretty small margin of victory considering hers felt a lot heavier. Oh, what could have been. 

When I later asked her how she felt about dominating the adult and kid’s division, she blithely replied, “I just cared about beating Bode.”

Game on, Weed Boy.

 

Filed Under: Bode, Hadley, Humor, pumpkins
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