watch out for the woestmans

Klahhane Ridge

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 21:51:22 +0000

Beatrix and Leon bought their own hiking backbacks this summer and they are getting a ton of use out of them.

One this day we decided to get up early and do my favorite hike over in the Olympics, Klahhane Ridge. It was about 8 miles and I was determined that the kids would have a good time. We charged the walkies, got plenty of snacks, promised ice cream if they don't complain, and even planned games to do along the way.

The only game we ended up playing was an animal scavenger hunt. I came up with likely and not so likely animals we would see and assigned them point values. The first person to spot the animal gets the points.

Calista ended up winning, she saw chipmunks, deer, animal tracks, and a marmmot.

Bob even saw an eagle, but he didn't get enough points to win. We also spotted sooty grouse and several hairs but I didn't expect those and didn't give them any point value.

On the way up Penelope, Leon, and Calista went ahead while Scarlett, Beatrix, Bob and I stayed together about ten minutes behind them.

The view at the top was amazing.

I love this hike because it is just the right level of hard for our family right now. Everyone had to work hard and was exhausted at the end but it wasn't too difficult for anyone. I also love the animals and the great view at the top.

Mini Hikes

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 21:27:57 +0000

The kids and I need to get out of the house everyday so at least once a week we go on a small local hike.

The kids bring their walkie talkies and have an endless conversation even though we are all usually within hearing distance anyway.

When we came to the tunnel Calista kept complaining about how I didn't let her go through it last time. There is running water through the bottom and I honestly don't remember not letting her do it last time. This time I let everyone go through and it did not go well for Beatrix. She really struggled and fell in the water a couple of times. Afterwards I could see why I said no to Calista last time.

Summer Fun

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 21:17:17 +0000

So far this summer has been different than ones in the past. Not only is Tucker gone but Penelope and Scarlett are attending full day cosmetology school. I'm not used to hanging out with just the three youngest kids but we are making the best of it.

We have a lot of foxglove in our yard but the white is less common, most of ours are purple.

Beatrix and I at the beach.

The deer observing our neighbors Keep Out sign. I thought it was pointed at us but maybe it is for the deer.

Penelope and I did manage to snag a few of the new Trader Joes bags before school got out. She got to the store an hour before opening and there were alreay about 40 people ahead of her.

Calista and Beatrix were taking picture with my phone while I was speaking to the employees about getting new tires for the van.

We had fun at a friends house for the 4th!

We have also had lots of library days, small hikes, and trips to the movies. I'll be sure to take pictures of those next time!

Spruce Railroad Trail to Devils Punchbowl

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Wed, 08 Jul 2026 21:07:42 +0000

Our first hike this summer was Spruce Railroad Trail to Devils Punchbowl over on Lake Crescent. I felt so prepared by buying a pass online, but it was not needed for this hike.

We went right after the last day of school and while some of the kids were happy to go some weren't.

I'll admit it was hot outside and this hike was not really in the shade. I think this is probably more a bike trail than hike but we made the best of it.

The actual Devils punchbowl area was crowded with people jumping off a rock into the water. It was a little too crowded for us so we found our own area to swim.

The water was absolutely freezing but Calista was determined to go all the way in. I think we all ended up in the water in the end except for Scarlett.

Scarlett's 15 Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sun, 05 Jul 2026 22:49:29 +0000

Spring Sports/Brithdays

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sun, 31 May 2026 15:03:23 +0000

One day over memorial weekend the kids and I went and visited Talitha. We were able to get haircuts and also see this amazing field of bigleaf lupine.

There were a ton of bees and it was neat to see how they carry the pollen as they fly from flower to flower.

Leon has been working hard learning to play baseball. It is his first year since t-ball and he is the youngest player on a 13-15 team. There is a huge size gap between Leon and some of the boys. A few even play on the high school team. He has friends on the team and has been enjoying it for the most part. He likes handing out with his friends but says the games are stressful. He has been walked on base several times and even made it home. Twice he has gotten bases by being hit while up to bat (no wonder it is stressful). During this last game he got his first hit that got him on base. It was very exciting and he was able to steal and get home. Of course this was the one game of the season I had to miss. Luckily a friend took a video and text it to me!

Leon preformed in the marching band for our armed forces day parade.

Calista turned 9! She had some friends over for a painting party.

Scarlett turned 15! She had friends over to watch "The Parent Trap," and then they went to the church dance together.

Scarlett killed it at her school play. They preformed "Puffs," all seven years of Hogwarts from the Hufflepuffs point of view. Scarlett played Leanna and Ginny. She did amazing and the play was hilarious.

She had tons of lines, an amazing monolog, and even a grand finale scene.

Beatrix had her reading debut! Her first grade class dressed up and met in the library where they each read a book into the microphone. The kids practiced for weeks. Families got to come and watch. Afterwards they got flowers and had snacks. It was the cutest thing and Beatrix's book was pretty funny.

I didn't get any Mother's day photos but we did have a spa night for activity days. Thanks girls!

This next picture is from my favorite local trail.

Penelope had her lacrosse awards ceremony where she got the Most Improved Player award. She did awesome this year and even I could see an improvement. Last year there were games where she barely ever had the ball and she only scored once the entire season. This year she had it all the time an scored often. I think she was trying to prove a point because we bought her a $200 stick and $60 goggles this year and she promised it would help her play better.

Lastly, we went and saw a whale in Bremerton. It was hanging out by the ferry terminal. I've never seen one locally before. It was super exciting and pretty close. The video doesn't do it justice.

Backyard Photos

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sun, 31 May 2026 14:13:39 +0000

Now that we have had some great weather I have been able to take a couple pictures of our backyard. It is almost magical.

Random

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:43:00 +0000

Here are a few random pictures I never got around to posting. Enjoy.

Spring Planting

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 23:04:00 +0000

We had a beautiful spring break this year. With Bob's help and manual labor I decided to plant in the front yard. It is so nice to have our own house. This first picture is the before. You can see my lovely cherry blossom tree in bloom. I've had that in a pot for almost two years and it is still small. I was hoping that it would grow more once it was in the ground.

Next is the after picture. I tried hard to plant things that don't need a lot of light and that the deer will leave along. We also added a walkway from the drive4way and a path around to the side of the house. I'm pretty happy wit how it turned out and I can't wait to see how everything grows over the next few years.

Two princesses helping us buy stones. We underestimated the amount we needed twice and ended up having to go three times.

Remember the cherry blossom tree from the first picture? The deer destroyed it! I tried to tape the branches back on but I do not think it will work. I'm so mad at the deer. I got this disgusting deer spray but it smells so badly I don't know how often I can spray it.

Cinder and Stormy

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 22:41:00 +0000

Meet Cinder and Stormy, our new kittens!

We promised the kids we would get cats after we moved into our new house. We wanted low maitenence pets and having a cat in Japan worked well for us. It has taken a few months because the humane society is only open during the week and we have been busy. But we had a no school day and I told the kids we would go check.

We knew we wanted a bonded pair of kittens and sure enough they had one friendly set of kittens ready for us to bring home.

At first I thought we should come back another day and see if they have others. These two look almost exactly the same and they are solid grey. But the kids really wanted these kittens.

They have grown on me.

But not the litter box. So I'm ready for them to move to the garage. So far they have been inside. But ideally they will also go outside and spend time in the garage hunting mice. Hopefully we can have a smooth transition.

Cinder has the red collar and is a bit more adventurous. Stormy has the blue collar and is more shy. They play fight with each other all the time and are a little skiddish. But they do like petting and never skratch or bite us so everyone is pretty happy with them.

Hanami

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 22:21:00 +0000

We met friends at a local park to have a picnic under the cherry blossom trees, aka hanami.

We had a good time and I used it as an opportunity to take a couple nice pictures of the kids.

Tucker Graduation/Mission

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sat, 11 Apr 2026 21:55:00 +0000

Back in June my oldest child graduated high school! Bob and I are super proud of him and can't believe that he is 18!

We had a graduation party with our close friends whose oldest also graduated.

After a way to quick summer Tucker moved to South Korea to serve a two year church mission.

We miss him so much. But we are also so proud of him and know he is doing good work.

End of the School Year

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Wed, 09 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000

The end of the school year was insane for our family. There were exactly 5 million concerts and events to go to it was very hard to keep up. I only have a few pictures but to share though. First up is a picture from Beatix's folk dancing night.

Scarlett graduated from middle school and will go to high school next year. Way to go!

She had a few field trips including two to SEattle one being to a Mariner's game.

Beatrix even had a kindergartener graduation. She is the only one of my kids to do one. It was super cute.

She received the wonderful worker award.

Calista didn't have a graduation but she did finish 2nd grade and get the leadership award.

This next picture is from a choir concert. All year long Scarlett complained to me about the boys next to her in choir class manspreading. So I laughed when I saw this at her concert. She wasn't lying.

Penleope also had orchestra concerts and finished 9th grade. And leon had a band concert and finished 6th grade.

Tucker had so many graduation things I'll need a separate post.

I'm so happy the school year is over!! It is nice working and then having the summer off!

Dance Recital

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Tue, 08 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Calista and Beatrix have been taking ballet classes all year at the YMCA. It is really cute and they have been having fun. They just had their first and last recital and did an amazing job.

They also got tired of dance and so we are stopping. They wanted to be done about a month before the recital but I made them stick it out. The class always seemed to be at the same time as a million other things I needed to do so I'm ready to be done with it as well. I'm happy they got to have this experience though.

Scarlett's 14th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Mon, 07 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Between all Tucker's graduation stuff and Calista's baptism stuff Scarlett didn't get the birthday attention she deserved. She had a great attitude about it though and is always very thoughtful.

She requested a lemon cake.

I usually tell everyone I'm leaving and everyone usually responds with an half hearted, "OK." It is funny and I'm not sure when she started doing it but whenever I leave the house she makes a point to run down the stairs to me and give me a hug and say bye. She is the only one of my kids who does that and she does it completely on her own. I've noticed her giving her friends goodbye hugs as well.

Scarlett also cares a lot about her friends and their feelings. She always wants to include everyone and doesn't want to hurt anyones feelings.

She loves reading and prefers to be in her room alone than hanging out with the family most of the time. We love her and try to get her to at least read on the couch near us. Happy Birthday Scarlett.

Calista's Baptism

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 21:25:00 +0000

Calista was very excited to turn eight and get baptized.

She had two sets of grandparents come watch as well as a couple Aunts. Everything went pretty smoothly and afterward she said she felt really good.

For her birthday she requested a cactus cake. I think it turned out pretty cute.

Calista has such a fun personality. She is full of energy and very kind. She doesn't feel like she needs permission to do anything and will be a great leader one day because of it. We love her!

Lacrosse Season

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sun, 06 Jul 2025 13:00:00 +0000

Penelope's friend asked her to join the lacrosse team with her and because she did not like her first day of track she decided to give it a try.

She ended up loving it so much. She said it might be even better than soccer.

As a parent it was more difficult because the practices were not at her school and she needed rides to and from practice everyday. The school did not provide busses for games either. But thankfully she had two friends who's parents we willing to carpool. There is no way I could have done it on my own.

Her team was a high school varsity team but it was made up of girls from all three high schools in our district. The girls they played against usually had much more experience. Penelope's team had several girls who were just learning.

The best part about it was how nice and supportive all the girls were. That and the epic goal Penelope made on the very last game. It was her first goal and all the girls ran and hugged her. She said her friend even started crying because it was so exciting.

Spring Update

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 19:08:00 +0000

We had a great spring this year. Check out a few of our highlights.

Great Wolf Lodge

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sat, 05 Jul 2025 18:50:00 +0000

We went to Great Wolf Lodge earlier in the year. The kids had a blast! It was a little stressful for Bob and I.

Leon's 12th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 18:17:00 +0000

Now that Leon is 12 it feels like I have four teenagers in the house. He isn't technically a teen, but he is in middle school and he is as tall as two of my teens.

Sometimes I think Leon has a split personality because everyone at school says he is very quiet, but at home he is the loudest out of my six kids. I think at home he is loud because he is always trying to get our attention by being louder than his siblings. I honestly don't know why he is so quiet when around others. I don't see it often, but it could from him being unsure of himself. I have noticed that he is a very technical person and any small discrepancy can trip him up. He takes everything I saw very literally which makes it hard for him to follow directions. If my directions are not specific enough or if they contradict a past direction in some way he gets stuck and doesn't know what to do. He is a very sweet guy, but sometimes it is like we are speaking two different languages. As he gets older I hope he grows in confidence outside of the home.

Leon is also doing swimming lessons and he learned a ton. I would say this was his first time really taking lessons and with him being a little older the growth was huge.

Leon likes to play games, sports, and spy things. Leon is also now a deacon at church which is pretty cool and means he is old enough to join in the weekly youth activities among other things.

In case you are wondering the big cut is from diving into the pool during his swimming lessons. He hit the bottom of the pool hard and had a huge bump on his forehead along with the scrape.

We really love Leon and are so happy we get to celebrate birthdays with him. Happy Birthday Leon!!

Beatrix's 6th Birthday

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Tue, 08 Apr 2025 01:23:00 +0000

Beatrix was so excited for her sixth birthday. She asked us everyday after Christmas how many more days until her birthday.

I think she was mostly excited for presents, cake, and ice cream. She said her favorite present was candy. We also got her a blood pressure cuff, a stethoscope, and a yoga ball.

Beatrix is doing great in school. She has mastered what feels like 800 kindergarten sight words and has only had two calls home from the nurse for head injuries at recess.

Beatrix was also excited to take her birthday pictures. I think she really likes the ritual of having a birthday and everything being about her.

Beatrix just started swim lessons and she has learned to float and not be be scared of the water. She still has a long way to go to learn how to swim.

Happy Birthday Beatrix!

House Update

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Sun, 06 Apr 2025 23:19:00 +0000

The house build is coming along...slowly. Bob spends pretty much every waking minute he isn't at work at the property and even with that it is understandably taking a while. I went over to help and get updated pictures for you all.

Check out the video.

The floors are poured, sanded, and polished. They look nice and I'm excited to have heated floors this winter.

Mostly what we do to help is clean.

Calista and Beatrix were gathering all the scrap wood in the garage.

This is the upstairs. We have plywood floors and the walls marked out. You can see part of the bathtub walls there.

Penelope is standing in what will be the open couch/ping pong table area.

This will be my favorite area, the reading nook and window seat.

Another picture of the garage with the mudroom and laundry room.

This is the inside of the downstairs. The kitchen will be along the right wall of this and the left half is the family room area.

Bob hooked up this electric box. Now we have to wait for the electric company to put in the wire. Their list is about five weeks long.

Now that the walls are upish and Bob has put in the plumbing he is working on HVAC and next will be the Pex piping (water that flows in). After that the interior electrical and the spray foam. Then the drywall and finishings after that. Oh and septic whenever it is dry enough.

It is nice that I can see the basic steps left for the house to be finished. It still feels like a long list, but now it is a list I can at least remember. As far as a timeline goes we have no idea. Bob is still trying for the summer, but honestly it will be done when it is done.

Snow Week

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Fri, 07 Feb 2025 03:00:00 +0000

We have been getting just barely enough snow to cancel school all week! It is Thursday and we haven't gone yet. They already announced that Friday will at least be a two hour delay. I hope the whole day doesn't get canceled because we used up our built in make up days and are now adding onto the end of the year. The problem is really the ice. It has been below freezing and snowing just enough for it to turn to ice.

Feeling a bit stuck in the house and having flash backs from covid is not stopping us from having fun.

This next picture is of us sledding at a friends house.

Today we played Mario cart together. I can't remember the last time I played video games with the kids.

Bob even had work canceled for two days and has been struggling to trench a power line to our property. He had to wait at Home Depot for two hours because they wouldn't give it to him until it got warmer outside. Then once he got it back he realized they didn't give him the keys. The whole thing has been a struggle because he is trying not to block the road for our neighbors who own an airbnb. He wasn't able to get started until about 3pm and is supposed to have it done today. I'll be excited when we have power!

Trampoline Park

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Mon, 03 Feb 2025 01:12:00 +0000

For Christmas this year the kids got a month long membership to the local trampoline park. We went pretty much everyday for two weeks before school started and then most days after that. We for sure got our moneys worth. We had a blast.

Troll Hunting

noreply@blogger.com (Doranda) — Thu, 23 Jan 2025 14:00:00 +0000

We visited two more trolls and only have one left. The first one is Brunn Iddun in Lincoln park. We had to walk a good fifteen minutes to get to this guy. He is down by the beach and we were not expecting that. It would have been a very nice walk but we were tired and not prepared.

We also visited the Issaquah troll Jakob Two Trees. I like his birdhouse necklace.