Three Things on Thursday

As part of school, and because I need it, and because Kiki wants to build endurance for her next level of swimming, the girls and I have been making an effort to go for a run or a walk or a hike every day this past week. So Thursday we met up for a day out of the house after school with Hermione and hiked Saddle Rock together. Now, I know that I've blogged about hiking Saddle Rock before, and I promise to not blog about it every single time we hike it. But, we did hike it in spring last time, and I thought it would be fun to share pics from this time too, since we did other things this day I'm going to share pictures of it seemed kind of silly to NOT share pics of beautiful Saddle Rock. :-)

Heading up the hill. It's really not a difficult hike, as Hermione did it in her flip flops, but it will give you a great work out. It is 3.3 miles round trip, and 900 feet of elevation gain, so VERY steep. The girls bear walked up this hill, because they were tired of their feet slipping out from under them.

Aw. My babies. It should be duly noted that Debris is wearing the same pants in this picture that Kiki was wearing last time we hiked it. I didn't plan that, but just happened to notice it when I was going through the pictures and information for this post. The way they've grown this summer has just taken my breath away.

Some perspective on how high we are... because those are tiny little houses down there!

See the little man on top of the rock?! See Hermione's normal human sized head right in front of mine?! I think one of the reasons why this is such an amazing hike is because your sense of size becomes SO VERY SKEWED in just a short walk. 1. The town becomes TINY! 2. Those tiny little Saddle Rocks you look at from town all the time become HUGE! It feels very surreal when you're up there.

My girls were COMPLETELY FEARLESS. It frightened me a little, and I'm really glad Hermione was with me to keep a hand on each of them.

(Weird Fact: I have never in my life been afraid of heights, but when I got pregnant with Kiki I got vertigo really bad through the first trimester, like I couldn't walk three or four steps up bleachers without feeling extremely-black-spots-in-front-of-my-eyes dizzy. I'm mostly good now, cliffs don't bother me at all, but if I'm somewhere with that surreal sense of height on both sides of me like a really large rock as this was, I tend to get just a little dizzy. Not fearfully so, just frustratingly so. It's quite annoying, and I have no intention of allowing it to get the better of me. I always forget until I'm at the top of the rock, and am expected to be reaching this way and that and grabbing children. Then I feel a little woozy, and suddenly I remember.)

The girls with Hermione. I had to command them to stop. They would have been at the top of this in nothing flat if I hadn't. My heart can't handle it, as them falling from this point would have meant (insert dramatic Discovery Channel announcer's voice here) extreme injury, or even death!

It was smoky in the valley. I think from Orchard Fires?! The town always smells like apple smoke in the fall and spring.

Down the backside.

And my girls got lazy, and slid on their butts down the end of the hike. They did a great job!

Next we headed off to the Downtown Park. I've definitely blogged about this spot before, but our purpose for visiting here this time was to take pictures of the Breast Cancer Awareness Month Bridge To A Cure Exhibit. It's true... a lot of things that get done in this month are silly, and some are crude, and some are, well, very pink. But, for me the bottom line is this:

If because of the millions of dollars that was spent on breast cancer awareness in the month of October, only ONE WOMAN in the whole world did a breast self exam and her life was saved as a result of that exam, all that money and effort would be worth it. Now, hopefully many women will be reached, obviously. So, here's my contribution to talking about it. Obviously it's important to get the appropriate tests and smooshifier appointments as age appropriate, and whatever... but, it's one of those things that may not be caught, because testing for it is so inconsistent. So, as an added precaution, we all have cell phones, right?! Almost everyone's cell phone has re-occurring appointment calender option in it. Go right now, and put in a re-occurring appointment for yourself to do a self exam. If you do them regularly, you'll be more likely to feel something that's definitely not supposed to be there. Piece of cake. This is how I run my life, by the way. Otherwise the garbage would NEVER get put out at my house, and I'd forget swimming lessons all the time.

We all know and love someone who's life has been touched or completely altered by breast cancer. Current statistics show that 1 in 8 women will battle invasive breast cancer in their life. That's a very abstract number, until you sit in Sunday School and count by 8's how many women surround you-not suggesting you do that, I'm just saying, that puts it into perspective for me, because it makes me realize how many amazing women I know and care about. You matter, I matter, and we all have a responsibility to make sure we do everything we can to be here for those we love.

Ok, I will step off my soapbox now, and just share pics of this amazing exhibit. Hundreds of bras were gathered and decorated, and all the money raised was given to a local organization, The Wellness Place.

Kiki and Debris LOVED it. So many pretty bras!!!

This one was my favorite. If you can't find this funny, there's something the matter with you. Good old Stan's Merry Mart. You can find anything in that store, I love it. Also I love the fact that there's a Land Rover Discovery parked below it that is not mine. It's not very often that you get two Disco's in one parking lot in Wenatchee.

And then we headed down to the park for acorn picking... lots and lots of acorn picking. Or acorn top picking, to be precise, as I have a craft I want to be doing with them.

And, one last chance to run around and climb their favorite fountain, which is now being readied for winter, along with lots of other things around town. We're battening down the hatches here, because it's supposed to be a cold, snowy one. Hopefully the Farmer's Almanac is right!

Have a great weekend!