Nephews

We had our nephews from out of town with us yesterday and decided to take advantage of the beautiful weather and head up to Mount St. Helens. We couldn’t have picked a more perfect day.

Even though we had just gotten back from a five and a half hour road trip late the previous night, my partner and I thought it would be fun to take our nephews up to one of our many local volcanoes, Mount St. Helens, since they haven’t been there before. First, however, we had to tend to the chickens and garden and I had the enthusiastic help of one of our nephews who was eager to collect eggs. He ended up doing most of the mundane chores for me because he wanted to do whatever he could to help out. Yeah, our nephews are cool like that. The drive up was somewhat unadventurous with the exception of the hundred questions about how long it was going to take, how long we would be spending there, how many fossils they might be able to find and how illegal it would be to take any of the rocks at the National Monument.

Once there they seemed to have a good time looking at the various features at the Johnson Ridge Observatory and the clear day produced a spectacular view of the volcano as well as the top of nearby Mt. Adams. Of course, boys being boys, they were hyper as all get out so my partner had them race each other to the top of the upper viewing area. That certainly seemed to help, but to the casual observer we had a somewhat behaved ten year old and a spastic twelve year old on our hands. Eventually we made our way back to the car and headed toward another gift shop so the boys could pick up a few souvenirs and then we were going to the 19 Mile House for cobbler, which turned into dinner and dessert as the boys were starving.

After we got home, we had them pack their bags and went to meet my dad for ice cream so he could have a little time with his grandkids before taking them over to my mom’s house for the night. My dad was just as surprised as we were at how much they had grown, especially the oldest who seemed to be growing an inch a day. They got to talk a little about their interests and activities and such before we had to get going, and while I wish it could have been a longer visit, there really wasn’t much time allotted to do so due to various schedules and such. The youngest told him to come to his grandma’s house so they could visit more, but my dad graciously declined and told him that next time he was in their neck of the woods he’d call him to set up a time to get together. After hugs and goodbyes, we left for my mom’s house.

When we got to my mom’s house, there were more people than I thought there would be, but then again, I have two aunt’s who live next door to my mom so it shouldn’t have been much of a surprise to see them there with their families visiting with my brother. The boys quickly found kids to play with and were pretty much out of sight for the rest of the night. Sometimes I wish they didn’t move so far away, but they seem to be really happy and I guess that is the important thing to keep in mind. I just hate knowing there is so much we are missing by being so far apart.