Great Start to Our Summer

Hooray—it's summer! That means time for camping, hiking... and enough free time to write a blog post!

It's been a while, so let me just say that there's a lot we're skipping: Emily got a new job! Woo! And we've had all kinds of sports fun: mini-golf, another Sounders game, even a super fun Mariners game with some of Franklin's friends from school.

But now... camping! Made sure the new tent was ready to go:


Stayed in Ohanapecosh, in Mt. Rainier National Park. Great area, beautiful river, and all kinds of trails:

On the Ohanapecosh Hot Springs Trail.

Set up camp in the Ohanapecosh campground:


I loved how excited Franklin was about going, and about being there. "Dad, I love camping!" :)

Also made a point of telling his teachers and friends at school.

You know what, speaking of his school, let me also just mention that his school is the subject of a documentary that's raising money for editing, etc. (trailer here: https://youtu.be/6K3H2VqQKcc). Somehow that story made it to an ABC News blog post, and then from there it was off. The Today Show even came to the school to film a segment! Very cool.

Anyway...

Did the 3-mile loop hike up to Silver Falls:

I just want to add that according to my pedometer I walked like eight miles on Saturday, and Franklin must have walked close to five. Quite a kid.

He was pretty ready to get back to camp, though, and can you blame him?

(Veggie dogs, because my ethics class has pretty much ruined meat for me...)



Next day we enjoyed a beautiful hike on the Grove of the Patriarchs Trail:


Fun bridge too:

Closeup here: https://flic.kr/p/uKrLbU.

Speaking of, there are even more pictures from the weekend trip in this album: https://flic.kr/s/aHskeH6A5i. And all kinds of pictures of things I've skipped online. Other stuff on the Flickr feed: https://www.flickr.com/photos/yancy9a/.
And of course there's also Emily's Instagram feed: https://instagram.com/emily.dominick, and Yancy's Instagram feed: https://instagram.com/yancy9/

Meanwhile, Franklin's almost too busy to photograph:


Though he liked the way the steps made a little stage, so he had us sit down and tell stories for Emily:

(Yes, if you're wondering, Franklin wore the same outfit both days...)



Little rest before we check out the views of the mountaintop and wildflowers at Paradise:


Okay, on to the flowers and peaks:


We didn't see any elk on this trip, but Franklin picked out this stuffed animal at the gift shop:

"Dad, I love my elk!"

One last hike, the Nisqually Vista Loop . Like I said, we didn't see any elk, but we did share the trail with this cutie for a minute or two:

The excellently named hoary marmot.



All right reader, hope your summer's off to a great start too!

Spring Training

Beautiful spring weather lately; great time for getting outside.

In town, Franklin has been enjoying t-ball lately:


Alas, I'm in class during his practices, but thankfully Emily's been great about photos and videos:

Baseball practice!

A photo posted by Emily Hughes Dominick (@emily.dominick) on May 4, 2015 at 5:04pm PDT

Tagging out at 1st

A video posted by Emily Hughes Dominick (@emily.dominick) on May 11, 2015 at 5:37pm PDT

Yesterday, we extended our outside fun to include a hike to Barclay Lake. About four miles round trip, and Franklin must have hiked nearly half of it. Few things make me happier than watching him walk eagerly down a trail :)



Found a pretty nice lunch spot at the lake too:


Hey, not to get too distracted, but do you like having a planet with stuff like this? Are you worried that all the money spent on fossil fuels might not be such a great investment? Me too! I didn't have a lot to do with the letter they're asking about, but I was happy to be interviewed on the subject for the Seattle U student paper: take a look, and let me know what you think.

Anyway, where was I? Oh, right—lunch by the lake!

Yum!

Okay, we're off down the trail...

Until next time, reader.

This Is What We Did

Too much fun for one family: that's how it feels sometimes!

As you may know, Washington's National Park Fund called and interviewed Emily recently about our experience monitoring marmots in Olympic National Park.

But did you know they also made a video? Take a look:

WNPF Celebrates Volunteers from Clatter&Din on Vimeo.

See what happens there around 2:35? Oh yeah, it's Franklin! (And us of course.) Woo!

Less important to the future health of planet, but equally fun: blue raspberry lollipop after a haircut:

Yummy Sunday! #barbershoptreat

A photo posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on Apr 19, 2015 at 11:41am PDT

Surprising amount of fun representing the Philosophy Department at a recent open house for accepted students who are considering attending Seattle U. Fun mostly because of the super helpful and enthusiastic philosophy majors who helped out:

Back again, this time with industrious students to help! #ilovemyjobagain #welcometophilosophy

A photo posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on Apr 18, 2015 at 10:59am PDT

Speaking of philosophy, Peter Singer has to be the most popular one in the US, no? I mean, this event packed a whole movie theater!

Couldn't resist the photo and signed book:

#themostgoodyoucando

A photo posted by Emily Hughes Dominick (@emily.dominick) on Apr 10, 2015 at 8:54pm PDT

What else? Oh, have you seen the movie Microcosmos? Franklin highly recommends it:

I mean, it distracted him from wanting to watch sports!!

Trailer:


All right, I have work to do. Okay okay, one more from playing in the gym at the Y during Emily's yoga class:


Sigh. I'm tired.

Ahh...

Play Ball! ... Or, I Love You Too, But Spring Is Here

So much fun with so many sports with Franklin. He's pretty committed to seasons lately, and spring is for soccer and baseball:

He also told me that he wants to go to Wrigley Field and see a Cubs baseball game. So... Grandpa Ray? Aunt Merrica?

Speaking of spring (the title of this post is one of his inexplicable but hilarious recent sayings), some delicious spring dining:


And tulips from last week's outing:


Last week's outing being the Skagit Valley Tulip Festival. We went in 2012; fun to return, and to see the fields in the sun!


Still nice and muddy though:














Long, full day:


Back at home, Franklin has really been enjoying watching 20-minute bits of Sweetgrass, one of my very favorite movies:


I mentioned it here back when we first saw it; such a great movie!


Also had some fun playing soccer, baseball, and a little frisbee with Jen at the beach last weekend:






And of course, as you may have heard, we attended our first Sounders game:


Pretty fun time.


And they won! And it was because of a beautiful 360-spin-move goal. Take a look:






All right, that's more or less it. (I really need to post more often and shorten these up, huh?)

Oh, a little fun today on Instagram, which Emily and I recently decided to look into after hearing how much Magen enjoys it:

#marchmadness in April

A video posted by Emily Hughes Dominick (@emily.dominick) on Apr 5, 2015 at 11:49am PDT

No Jayhawk gear in that basketball clip, shockingly, but here's Franklin's current favorite ad:

Over and over lately he's been saying, "Rock Chalk, baby!" :)

All right, a little more Instagram:

Lamb chops

A photo posted by Emily Hughes Dominick (@emily.dominick) on Apr 5, 2015 at 5:48pm PDT

And that's it. Cheers, reader! Hope you're having a wonderful spring!

Happy day all!

A photo posted by Yancy Hughes Dominick (@yancy9) on Apr 5, 2015 at 6:51pm PDT