Monday, October 3, 2011

Sweet Sunday

After laying low the last 4 days or so, following the nasty throw-up bug that Jack and I had on Wednesday, today woke me back up to the world.  When you're sick, you sort of forget how good it feels to be well.  Today, I remembered.  Hally-looyer!


The kids and I met up with our dear friends Jen, Joey and Carly and Jen's old friend Stacy and her sweet, smiley 10 month old daughter, Mason, at Tolt MacDonald Park in Carnation.  This park has been special to us since the kids were little; we have many, many wonderful memories from our days there.  To Jen, it's even more special, because her very own grandfather, John MacDonald, helped create it!  My kids and Jen's kids always have a ball together and today was no exception.  


The park has an amazing suspension bridge (that Jen's grandfather helped engineer!), and today when we crossed it, we saw a sight we hadn't seen before:  the whole Snoqualmie River was filled with salmon, swimming upstream to spawn.  They were EVERYWHERE!  I believe they were humpies, as they had large humps on their backs (I'm a genius, I know!).  We stood on the swaying bridge and watched those fish for a looong time.  I could have watched forever.  They splashed and jumped and twisted and fought their way toward their destiny.  They came from the OCEAN for goodness sake and they were in Carnation and they must have been SO tired, and many were war torn and beaten up, but they just keep going, back to where they were hatched.  How do they do it???  Jack's 3rd grade class is studying salmon, so I'm hoping to have some answers about this soon.  Here are some pics of these magnificent creatures:
NOTE:  humps 
there is still beauty here, I think

kids being AMAZED

on the bridge
  

Tonight, after dinner (spaghetti), I was cleaning up, and Caroline asked me to come downstairs and watch her do her "show."  I sat on the couch and watched her dance, in the dark (the lights had to be off because she had 3 flashlights set up for "spotlights"), to the Amelie soundtrack that I had on upstairs.  It was one of those perfect times in life, where you just get totally caught up in the present moment and can appreciate the pure beauty of it.  Her dances went with each song, in spirit and moves.  She twirled and leaped and pretended to swim like a salmon and it was very dramatic and lovely.   Here's a little video clip I took of one of her numbers.  And maybe it's one of those things that doesn't really translate out to anyone other than Caroline and me, but I'll share it anyway, for posterity:

Actually, NEVER MIND--the technology wouldn't allow it after an hour (really!) of waiting for it to upload.  Just use your imagination, and make it rich!



Oh, what a sweet, sweet Sunday it was!

2 comments:

  1. Glad you're both feeling better. Lovely day for a recovery. Relying on grade school reports shows how schools keep paying dividends to society.

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  2. Schalmon? Schweet! Schuspension Bridge? Schuper cool! Caroline always makes me think of Avery when you describe her. Glad you're feeling better!

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