Northern Exposure - The Revival!

Starring:
Ron Torland - Papa Ron (my Dad, son of Mildred, grandson of Herman and Anna Swanson)
Mary Lou Ham - Auntie Lou (Papa Ron's sister, my aunt)
Heidi Evans - Heidi (my cousin)
Ellia Evans - Ellia
Berren Evans - Berren
Larry Bullock - Larry (Papa Ron's cousin, son of Hannah, grandson of Herman and Anna)
David Bullock - David (Papa Ron's cousin, Larry's brother, etc.)
Luis J. Cruz - Luis
Mason Cruz - Mason
Siena Cruz - Siena
Kris Cruz - me

This weekend was the annual Roslyn road trip. For a recap of last year's trip, check here: http://dayzdtomato.blogspot.com/2008/06/miner-detour.html. Last year's post includes more of the history and backstory of the town and since this is weeks blog is already going to be insanly long, I won't repeat last year's post.

I have to admit that thanks to a bad batch of Burger King burger shots, the car ride up to Roslyn was miserable for Siena and I. I left my barf mark right outside the fence of Ft. Lewis, one good splash from setting off a trip wire, I'm sure. Siena wasn't so lucky. Her throw up landed all over her blanket, outfit, carseat, etc...it was a long drive.

Regardless, we made it. Since there were 4 of us, we decided to stay at Suncadia - the resort located just outside of Roslyn. It has only been around for a couple of years but was very nice. This was the view from our room (Cle Elum river is below):

We ate dinner the first night at Pasttime, a restaurant in Roslyn across the street from the Roslyn museum. This was after driving around for 30 minutes looking for the Safeway that was 2 minutes from us. Hummm, like father, like son.
The next morning, we met up with the rest of our people and first hit the rocks (aka the 8th wonder as dubbed by Luis). This is the view down from the top of sliding rock. Note the ass grooves where Mason is scaling the rock.

The top of sliding rock with Mason and Ellia. I'm more concerned here with making sure no little kid topples the 40 feet down the backside of this rock.

Heidi made it this year after being sick the week of the trip last year. Mr. Berren had no qualms scaling a large boulder. Give him a few more years and he'll have Everest conquered. Heidi had an iron grip on the back of his overalls the whole time.

Luis making sure Berren makes it down in one piece (see videos at bottom of blog for awkward slides down the rock).

The boys - Mason, Luis, Berren, Papa Ron, and Larry. This particular 8th wonder has no formal name (that I am aware of) but since it is the boulder of choice for family photo's, I'll dub it Kodak rock.

The Cruzes, sans Mason who was halfway up the hill with Ellia, and Papa Ron atop Kodak rock.

Dancing rock is under my right foot and the opposite side of the crevase is under my left foot. I'm sure this pose would have never happened had Yaya been present.

Several brave kids make the trek through the crevase. I too was able to do this trek about 40 pounds ago.

Siena checks out the route through the rocks...

After the 8th wonder, we hiked a little further down the path to find the spot where Uncle Clarence (Herman and Anna's son) had played baseball for the Roslyn team in his youth. The flat area is now overgrown with trees and shrubs but it is the area to the right behind Papa Ron and Siena.

Whew. One hike down.

Happy kids and wildflowers.

Last year I neglected to give a shout out to the Brick. The Brick is on Pennsylvania Ave. in downtown Roslyn (the main strip) and has the distinction of being the oldest continuously operated bar in the state of Washington. And it has some mighty tasty Roslyn Brewery beer on tap.

The Miner's memorial, also on Penn. Ave.

There are still some homages to Northern Exposure (the tv show from the 1990's filmed in Roslyn) throughout the town. The exterior of the radio station is behind the miner's memorial.

I found this particular placquard at the memorial to be interesting. Wouldn't you think that after #2 died in the mines that Ms. Johanna might have considered marrying a man of a different profession?

Papa Ron holding the camel's tail. Luis is holding...well, we're not sure...

The actual neon sign from Roslyn cafe is pretty cool too...we had lunch here on Friday.

3 kids in front of the mural.

This year we walked up to the cemetry in Roslyn. Here's uncle Clarence's grave. Note the guitar and baseball bat on the top.

Mason and Ellia found the one wet spot in the area.

The cemetry is organized by ethnicities and social groups. Here's the Moose area of the grounds. Not sure why the sign is crooked.

The kids found a nice bench outside the Jewish section of the cemetry. Unfortunately, they found themselves in the path of the sprinkler...

We hung a right at "Old City" to make our way to Herman and Anna Swanson's graves.

Family portrait beside Herman and Anna's grave.

Luis was on the other side of the gravesite with all of the camera's...

After a tasty lunch at Roslyn cafe, the kids checked out the old mining trains outside the Roslyn museum. Aren't they sweet?

Mason takes a turn behind the wheel of one of the old mining machines. These machines were part of the cause of one of the miner's strikes during the 1930's. They would burrow out sections of the mines, taking work away from a number of men.

Ellia and Seina also had fun "driving" the old machines.

Since Berren (and apparently Papa Ron) needed a nap, we went back to our place for some playing and swimming. Suncadia had a couple of really cool mine themed playstructures.

Here's Mason on the other side of Suncadia Mine #10 (note that there were 9 active mines in Roslyn/Cle Elum/Ronald history).Mason under Heidi's hat. What can I say.

Heidi and Ellia came over to our place for some swimming in the afternoon. Another playground. Who says the kids get to have all of the fun.

Dinner at Village Pizza in downtown Roslyn. Papa Ron and I enjoyed a pitcher of Roslyn Brewery's finest.

Berren LOVED his pizza!

I think its been a while since Papa Ron had 2 cups of beer. After dinner we went back to the park for a little while. First we looked over and saw Papa Ron on the swings. Who says parks are just for kids.

In addition to pizza, Berren loved the yellow ducky at the park. This is when he wasn't scaling walls and play structures.

Back to 2 drink Papa Ron. Now he's on top of the jungle gym with Ellia.

Guess its easier to climb up than to crawl out, huh Papa Ron.

Look, its Papa Ron on another piece of playground equipment!

The next day, all of us drove up to Cooper lake which is about 10 miles past Ronald. We took hike that went from Cooper lake to Salmon-la-sac camp ground. Since we didn't want to do the 4 mile hike twice, the 3 men (Papa Ron, Luis, and David) took 2 cars down to the end of the trail at Salmon-la-sac and brought one back to the head of the trail. Unfortunately for them, the head of the trail was 1.5 miles from the parking area at the trailhead.

That left Heidi, Auntie Lou, the kids, and I to start out ahead while they parked the cars, knowing that we would be slower and that they would be able to catch up. After 3 miles of lugging Berren and Siena, we were all excited to see the men catch up to us.

And I was thrilled to have Luis be able to finally help carry Siena a little bit. She did a lot of walking on her own though for having little legs. Mason and Ellia made it the whole way without help or complaint!

A picture of Papa Ron taking a picture...

The views were beautiful. Especially this one until Mason gave me a shove in the rear...luckily he's not quite strong enough to get me off of the cliff...

After the long and dusty hike, we had a late lunch at Pasttimes. Here's David playing with the kids.

And of course a little post lunch ice cream at Cicely's to top off another great day and another great trip.

Most of the family went home after the hike on Saturday. We stayed at Suncadia and left this morning. The kids had a bath and we all relaxed. Luckily the drive home today was much less eventful than the drive up.

Final mosquito bite count (from the hike):

Luis - 1

Mason - 0

Siena - 0

Kris - 12

Next year, we're bound and determined to get a few more spouses to come with us. Luis has a great time and I think all us would agree that a large part of the appeal of this annual trip is spending time together.

_________________________________________________

Because this week's blog isn't long enough, I'll continue. I'd be remiss if I didn't acknowledge the passing of Michael Jackson. I haven't been much of a fan in the last 15 years but I'd be a liar if I said I wasn't sad to hear of his death.

I remember vividly listening for hours to Thriller back in the early 1980's with my friends. We tried to moonwalk. We wore white gloves. We watched the Wiz and watched every Michael Jackson video that came on MTV. I had this poster hanging on my wall.

Whatever people may think about what became of Michael Jackson, I'll always remember his music as the soundtrack of my 1980's. His talent is indescribable. His impact will be long lasting.

_______________________________________________

As promised, here's the video footage of sliding rock. Yes, I about lost my footing. Its steeper than it looks.

Ten Lessions I Learned from Papa Ron

What with it being Father's day and all, I got to thinking that a lot of who I am today is directly attributable to Papa Ron. Therefore, in addition to the Soprano's Season 2 DVD's we got for him, here are the top 10 things I have learned from my dad.

1)How to properly wash a car. Yes, it takes an entire day, involves various clothes, brushes, cream, and waxes. This needs to be done annually.
2) Music. Everything I love and appreciate about music I got from my dad from knowledge of the oldies to that first Mary Chapin Carpenter concert that he took me to. Papa Ron taught me that music was more than background noise but something that can become a significant part of your life.
3) The joys of reading. And thank goodness he has an endless library for me to pilfer from.

4) The Blazers are the best pro team ever! Dad not only took me to games back at the Schnitz to see them on the big screen (and bought me a 3 Musketeers) but took me to many games in the old Coliseum, to Blazers banquets so i could meet the players, and we watched many many games together on tv.

5) How to be a hard worker and a good employee.

6) No matter how busy you may be with your job and career (like managing a publicly traded company), you can still find time to go to your kids sports games. I don't recall him missing very many.

7) How to drive a stick shift.

8) No matter your own personal religious and political beliefs, don't force them on your kids. Let them have their own experiences and decide for themselves what to believe.

9) Its never too late in life to pursue your passions, be it cooking, working on cars, etc.

10) Make sure to listen to your elder relatives tell their stories. They are often more interesting than fiction. Also document your own experiences. Your life may seem boring to you, but someone down the line will be thrilled to hear the story - good and bad.

A few bonuses would be the joys of pressure washing and that it is truly possible to have the same hair style for 40 years.

________________________________________________

To celebrate Father's day, we first had breakfast at Jose and Gloria's house.

I became a human jungle gym.

Luis tried out his father's day gift to his dad.

The kids tried it out too.

And then there was the food. Here's Joel eating the bacon. Note the paper towel pieces stuck to the bacon. This is from when it was microwaved. Yes, that's right. I said microwaved. Joel can't even look...

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Weekly movie reviews:

Benjamin Button. What a curious case. What a curious movie. Even after watching the 3 hours that was this movie, I as still curious. This is because NO ONE in this entire movie seemed fazed by the fact that this guy was getting younger. In the real world, Button would have been a circus side show at the very least. The medical profession would be clamoring over themselves to understand this guy and yet, there is none of that in this film. Its just a nice little story where the hero happens to get young. Don't even get me started on the fact that he shrinks down to baby size at the end (oh, spoiler alert). The story itself is fine but puhleeze, acknowledge this guys medical condition for goodness sakes.

Tom Cruise. Valkyrie. I was prepared to not really like this movie but was very pleasantly surprised. It was a look at WWII that hasn't been told before. I'll admit that I was distracted at Cruise in the lead role a bit - its hard to not look at him and think TomKat; crazy scientologist; alien worshiper; most famous guy on the planet - and instead focus on his character. For his part, he did a great job. It's just a little distracting seeing him in any role these days. Regardless, this is a great movie and I would recommend it.

The Rose Cup

So I don't think Luis is crazy. The more time passes, the more I think it was a reaction to the Claritin and not something more. Granted, it was an extreme reaction but I the more I see him now and look back, the more I think that's what it is. Anyone know how to sue Claritin?

Me neither.

Why is it the weekends seem busier than the week days? Yesterday we took the kids down to Portland International Raceways (PIR) for the Rose Cup races. For all of us but Luis, this was our first ever car race. The biggest surprise for me was not seeing a single mullet!

Here's Luis and the kids taking in the first of the Porche qualifying races.
Yup, we were sporting our caps for this event.
Siena wanted to get out on the track so bad...apparently the fact of only being 3 years old wasn't a deterrant.

Here's Siena getting the feel of an old school racing car.

At PIR you're able to go down in the pits and interact with the drivers and their cars. One driver was nice enough to let the kids try out his car. Mason wussed out but Siena wasn't going to let such a neat opportunity pass by.

Mason did enjoy checking out the burnt tire rubber and the engine mechanics, not to mention the drivers cool water shirt and driving suit. Cool stuff.

I thought these Porsche scooters were pretty cool.

And here was my favorite race car of them all. Believe it or not, this car not only raced, but we got to see it in action - bringing up the rear, of course.

A lunch break with cutie boy and his Speed Racer hat.

And Siena and her freebie pink hat.

Here's my boys!

And me and my babies...

Wait, what happened to the sweet babies...I'm getting pounced on...

There was also an old school cruise-in at PIR on this day. Luis is checking out the VW van with the matching go-cart.

Ramone? From Cars? He's making an appearance...

This car was named "Tinkerbell" and as such was Siena's favorite.

Mason liked the race cars best but seeing a "Herbie" was a treat nonetheless.

After the PIR event, we had to run straight to Mason's soccer game. We had only an hour break after his game before going to cousin Kendra's dance recital. Siena was showing off her dancing moves in the lobby. She's anxious for lessons after watching big cousin perform.

I caught Luis mid-tongue. Clearly I'm not against including unflattering pictures - just not of myself.

The challenge of being 3.5 years old and under 40 lbs is that theater chairs fold up on you. My... its rough being a little girl.

____________________________________________________

The Cruzer movie reviews continue this week...

He may not be into you, but you should be into this movie. This ranks 7 out of 10 on the "repeat watchability scale" due to its light nature, recognizable cast, and good humor. Both Luis and I liked this "chick flick", though Luis tends to like most chick flicks so that may not be the best litmis test. Regardless, it moves along at a fast clip and is engaging from beginning to end.

Not sure how 2 chick flicks in one week happened, though I'm sure I had something to do with it. This movie was fine, though not as high quality as the aforementioned "He's Just Not that Into You". Perhaps if not seen on the heels of that flick, it may have seemed better. Instead it came across as predicatable, and, while cute and mostly entertaining, ultimately fell flat. You won't come away feeling your 2 hours were wasted, but you likely won't go back for more either.

Since we didn't have enough activity this weekend, we took the kids today to see "Up". This may well be the best movie I have seen in 2009, in any genre. All 4 of us really enjoyed it which, given the age groups and tastes present, says a lot. There wasn't a dull moment in this film. In addition, the story was incredibly touching and, I have to say, really funny in a lot of instances. I can't imagine anyone not coming out of this movie without a smile.

_________________________________________________

BEAT LA!!!!! (I'm currently watching the Magic vs. Lakers and it isn't looking so good for the Magic).

Getting the Pieces Put Back in Place

Luis came home last Saturday from what we're calling his weeklong "vacation" at Portland Adventist underwritten by my health insurance.

The kids certainly had some confusion over what was going on. Both are smart and sensitive and both had seen Daddy a couple of times during his psychotic episodes. They also knew that he wasn't around for a week and I'm sure they could sense that Mommy was under some stress. It took a few days for him to exert his parental control over the kids again (without them deferring to me) and for the kids to be used to him being around again.

What has been a strange thing, amongst many in this chapter whole saga, is that when someone comes home from the hospital after psychological treatment, its not like they've got some lingering illness or injury to heal. Luis had been started on medications before coming home and has basically been the same 'ole Luis since getting back. Just Luis plus a couple new prescriptions and no Claritin. As a result, there are times when it seems like what we experienced was a weird bad dream.

For the first few days, I was keeping a close eye on him, making sure that what he was saying and doing was really him and not another "episode". I'm sure it annoyed him but he also understood it. We're also still trying to understand what this bipolar diagnosis is all about.

Luis went through a few nights of poor sleep as a result of getting used to his new prescriptions and the different side effects it brings. They seem to increase his auditory senses. He hears sounds more acutely than he used to. He also had to implement a new bedtime routine.

I had insomnia of my own last Sunday after six nights of taking Ambien. Taking Ambien seemed like a good idea at the time when I was under stress and tense. After a few nights though, I couldn't get to sleep without it. After 6 nights though, I knew I was done with it. I went through the miserable night of what is known as "rebound insomnia" and another night of crappy sleep before I got back into a sleep routine. I found on the internet that many others have had this experience coming off of Ambien. I know it works well for many people but I think I'll take a pass in the future.

Here's where you can take your pick of cliches: we're taking it one day at a time, rolling with the punches, etc. We're more or less settled back into our everyday routine which I don't think I'll be taking for granted anytime soon. We're certainly mindful of this new bipolar thing that has entered our lives but are dealing with it like we do most things, together and with humor. It may seem irreverant to some but that's what works best for us.

___________________________________________________________________

So unrealted to Luis going crazy, we did watch a couple of movies last week. Since I've never been known for having a shortage of opinions, I'm going to start including movie reviews on my blog, especially since our tv shows are all on hiatus for the summer and because its my blog darnit and I can. Don't worry, no spoilers.

Liam Neeson in Taken. Here's my problems with this movie: 1) Really, we're supposed to believe that 50 year old Neeson is able to take out all of the bad Albanians single-handedly?!? 2) No one in the movie seemed to care that he kept posing as a French policeman while speaking American English, and 3) It all came together a little too easily. Unbelieveably so. All in all, thumbs down.
On the other hand, I LOVED the Grand. It started a little slow but that was because they were introducing characters. Once the movie got rolling though, it was great comedy. There were a ton of great one liners, not to mention a great cast. Doesn't hurt that I love mockumentaries. This was unique and enjoyable. Thumbs up.