Ramblings Of My Day

   Today has been one of those days I’d like to remember.  Today was hectic, but it was all about enjoying the kids while I can.  They are only young once. 

   It still breaks my heart to see how big my eldest has grown.  Each milestone puts me in tears.  On the other hand, I’m so proud of the brilliant, big hearted guy he is, and what he’ll do with all that is wonderful about him as he grows.  He’s actually the hardest one for me to watch grow up at the moment.  He’s my buddy.  My partner in crime.  My miracle baby.  I used to say it was him and me against the world.  Don’t get me wrong, I love both of my twinnies just as much.  I guess it’s one of those things you have to be a parent to understand, but you can adore all of your kids equally, and still there are points for each kid that you celebrate, and dread, completely differently than the others.  He’s my first born.  I’m in no hurry for any of them to grow up, but I think because it was just him for the first five years, and as soon as there were more, it kind of feels like he’s left me in the dust.  He keeps hitting milestones and I keep missing the growth in between, because I’m so busy… being Mom.

   

   AAAANNNNYYYYYHOW.  Along with this great kid of mine, is his tremendous heart.  He loves his family.  He loves his Momma.  He’s 10 and still not embarrassed to hold my hand and kiss me goodbye in front of his friends. When he’s tired he’ll still snuggle up, and it doesn’t matter who’s around.  He even requests morning and evening snuggles at home.  One of these advantages… he LOVES for me to come along at his school things.  I’m not a great “in class” mom, but I do well chaperoning field trips.  Too much chaos in one room is sensory overload, and then I get grumpy even though I don’t mean to.  But out and about I get to really enjoy the time. 

   

   I love watching him interact with other kids, and how his classmates treat him.  I even picked on him a little once on a return trip from one tour, some teasing that he didn’t even think twice about, and his friends still all flocked to his defense.  I was so proud of him, and of his friends.  He’s so fortunate to be surrounded by such great kids. 

   Today was one of those field trip days.  We visited a local park that is historical to a local native tribe.  The tribe put together a fascinating educational program.  Not the stuff you see in the old western movies and PBS, but sharing of the legends of that particular piece of land, the stories of their own upbringing and elders, and amazing uses of the native plant life.  There were the tidal pools and the beach, the cedars and the stinging nettles.  There was storytelling, drums and singing.  And I got to share it all with my eldest, by his request even.  After lunch, he was tired from all the excitement and a bunch of running around with the other kids, and walked over to where I sat on the grass, and laid his head on my lap and just rambled on about whatever his thoughts were at that moment.  I’m SO in love with this kid!

   

   He even chose to sit next to me on a mostly empty school bus, instead of by his friends, on the way back! 

   Okay, but it’s not just about him.  I got home, and for once I didn’t have everywhere else in the world to be.  No Cub Scouts, no baseball, no meetings, no.... for the first time in months, I took the night off.  I watched my daughter chase the neighborhood boys, with a streak of dirt from her eye to her hairline at her temple, and another smudge on her chin.  She had picked her own outfit… a long sleeve green and white top with denim short overalls and her hot pink trimmed black sneakers.  I watched as she set up her Barbie “tent” down on the street, with her lawn chair inside, and her hula hoop on top for whatever reason.  When it got in the way of the boys, I watched my eldest and the eldest of the other brothers from across the street shove her things aside, and I watched the youngest of those brothers, who’s usually the one to do the shoving, defend her to the other boys and re-set up her things.  Tonight, after I tucked in the boys, I walked into her room and found her drowning in blankets, sweating oceans, with her face buried between her pillow and her Hello Kitty.  (She calls Hello Kitty her “sister”.  Everywhere she goes, she sees Hello Kitty, and she’s excited to see “my sister!”.)  She’s wearing her pink Hello Kitty PJ’s and for once, not snoring.  Give her a minute and not only will the snores start, but the grinding of the teeth will too.  I’m SO in love with this kid!

   The Littlest Prince came in to my room tonight.  I thought I had settled in for the night.  I’d read them books and kissed them good night, and Daddy had tucked them in.  But he wanted Mommy to tuck him in.  I got grumpy and told him I might go tuck him in, if he’d just let me finish the show I was watching.  He came back three more times before I got snippy and yelled that if he didn’t cut it out, I wouldn’t go see him at all.  He left, somehow still smiling.  I think he knows by now that he can trust I will go give him a kiss good night, even when I’m grumpy, if he asks.  One day I’ll switch it up on him and just not go in.  Naaaaah.  Nope, it’s a reminder to me that I only get one chance to be a Mom to the little him.  One day he’ll be big, and all the tucking in will be over. 

   I thought it would be just the standard routine; walk in, give him a kiss, listen to a “why did the chicken cross the road” joke, kiss him again, and walk back out.  Nope.  He was eagerly waiting for me in the dark.  I came in, and he told me to wait a minute.  He threw off his blanket, shuffled around, and turned on his reading light.  Then he proceeded to start to lay down on the “sweet  spot” where he’d be sleeping for the night, and handed his Tigger blanket to me.  “Here” he instructed.  I went to tuck it under his chin when he sat back up and grabbed the blanket back.  Apparently I had it all wrong and it needed to be in another direction.  After he righted my wrong, he let me try again.  He instructed me to tuck it all around him… so there he was, a blue and orange blanketed little dude burrito.  Then he told me it’s finally okay to turn off the light.  My kid just gave me a lesson in how to “properly” tuck him in.  I’m SO in love with this kid!

   At some point, it’s going to catch up.  The twins will start not wanting to be tucked in.  Their field trips will go by.  Their firsts will start to slow down.  When that starts, each milestone will be that much more bittersweet again, much like my eldest.  Right now most things are still, “I’ll get to do this again” with them.  But soon I’ll be back at “this is the last time I’ll get to do this”.  It’s really only a matter of time.  I’m so thankful that I am able to have days like today, where things slow down for a minute and I can see what’s right in front of me, growing up way too fast.

I've Been Inspired...

   I'm working very hard to landscape a large portion of our front yard/driveway.  It's a huge amount of space and will take a lot of work.  I really only want to do a section at a time.  In the meantime, I don't really want to leave a lot of bare spots while I work.

   A few weeks ago, I came across the idea of a sunflower house.  I've seen bean shelters and such, but something as simple and pretty as a group of sunflowers... that's got my name written all over it.  The kids are 10, 5, and of course, 5.  Sounds like as good a time as any do work such a project.

   Unfortunately, the weather has been less than cooperative.  I never used to be, but lately I'm a total weather wimp.  Don't know where I got it from, but if it's gray, inside I will stay.  So this means I've had a couple weeks to expand on this idea.  Pinterest is such an awesome/evil thing.  And what's great is, no matter how many great ideas I've had, I have still only found one thing I might have to purchase.  The rest is all using supplies I already have, or have available to me.  Oh, and almost all of it can be built by the kids themselves!

   My latest idea is for an outdoor summer game room.  It would start with the planting of the sunflower seeds... and I have a huge variety.  I would dig the trench, but the kids would sow the seeds and cover them up.

   The next step, as our flowers start their stretch for the sun, would be to make games to play.  Pinterest to the rescue again.  My folks cut down two huge trees in their back yard.  Hubby has been chipping away at the heap of log rounds to make firewood.  I would have to go and look at the remaining rounds, but if I can find one of an appropriate size, I can plop it inside the "house".  (I would likely want to treat it first, to prevent damage/bugs/fungus.)  But the kids can take it from there.  We have rocks, lots of beautiful rocks for painting, all over the place.  Painted rocks might just make for excellent game pieces.  And that log?  I'm thinking a game board burned or painted on it.  Either a simple tic-tac-toe, or a chess/checkers board.  Voila!  Outdoor game for an outdoor game room!

  Not only can the kids help me build it, they can sit in the shade and picnic, play quite games, and enjoy a safe spot to play as I do other yard work.  The Eldest loves his quite time reading books, and this might be a spot for him to enjoy for that purpose as well.  I'm kinda excited to see how it turns out.  Well, you know, assuming I can get a break in the gray, soggy weather.

I Finally Made An Awesome Cake!!!

My twins turned five yesterday.  WOW how time really does fly.  I don't think you really grasp that concept until you're watching your kids grow and it seems to be far too fast.  But, growing is what they do best.

I love watching the differences between the two.  My Littlest Prince woke up ready to party.  All he wanted to know was where the party, cake, and ice cream would be.  The Princess, on the other hand, woke up FURIOUS that she'd not become a full grown adult overnight.  She ran right into my bedroom to see her expected overnight transformation in the full size mirror, and was greatly disappointed to say the least.  She got over it.  ;-)

Usually every year I bake all three kids a cake from scratch.  (If we do a celebration outside the house, however, I go with a second cake.  A trusty and dependable store bought.  Mostly because my cake skills are 50/50.)  But I have always wanted to bake cakes from scratch for birthdays, if I ever had kids, and so I do.  This year, the twins wanted strawberry and pineapple in their cake.  I found a great strawberry cake recipe (not using boxed mix) a few years back when the Eldest had requested one, and it turns out excellent every time.  With a little searching, I found a second recipe that included pineapple and orange, but used a box mix.  So, with a little tweaking here and there, I combined both recipes to make this amazing, tropical, strawberry-pineapple loaded, moist and delicious cake.  Here is the recipe as I had used it.

Strawberry-Pineapple Cake

2 cups white sugar

1 3oz package strawberry flavored Jell-O

1 cup butter, softened

4 eggs at room temp.

2 ¾ cups cake flour, sifted

2 ½ tsp baking powder

½ cup whole milk at room temp.

½ cup strawberry puree from frozen, unsweetened strawberries

1 8oz can crushed pineapple with juice

2 tsp (or so) fresh orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Grease and flour two 9 inch round cake pans.  (Or whatever pan you’re using.)

In your mixer, cream butter,  sugar, and dry Jell-O mix together until fluffy.  Add eggs one at a time, making sure each egg is well mixed in before adding the next. 

In a separate bowl, combine flour and baking soda.  Add flour mix a little at a time, alternating with milk.  Add in the strawberry puree and pineapple.  Pour evenly into cake pans. 

Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until a wooden toothpick inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean.  Cool cake in pans on wire rack at least 10 minutes before removing cake to cool on rack completely.  Do be careful, this cake is soft and breaks easily. 

I fully admit I have not done well making my own frosting, so I used store bought.  I used lemon frosting for the center, between layers, and white frosting for the entire outside.  Pat some sweetened, flaked coconut on the outside to complete that tropical theme.  :-D   That being said, this recipe as written is super sweet, so it's really perfect on it's own, without the frosting.

On the other hand, if you are going to frost it, it really is super sweet.  I would seriously recommend reducing that sugar considerably.  Either way, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.  

Oh Hey! There's A Blog Here!

Yesterday I had a thought.  That thought led to more thoughts.  Those thoughts led to an entire inner dialogue.  That inner dialogue made me think of my blog.  Thinking of my blog made me realize I've totally abandoned the poor thing.

I look back at published posts and see all kinds of goodies.  Most frustrating, I see posts that were meant to be followed up with further posts to complete the stories I was trying to tell.  Apparently follow through isn't my strong suit.

SO, I can't promise anything, but I will say I'm hoping to try this again.  I love writing.  I love telling my stories and sharing my thoughts.  I just don't love sitting still long enough to do both.

What We Found Out About Our Stolen Car

This morning I was startled awake when my husband asked me where I’d parked the car.  I told him in the driveway, and he said it’s not there.

Our driveway is steep, and if the transmission were to fail, it would roll down to our neighbor’s back yard, so hubby went walking down there to see if that had happened.  On his way, he saw a car 5 doors down the street with its reverse lights on, but faint and not moving.  Turns out, that was our missing car.

The car was in reverse, but the engine dead.  There was not enough juice in the battery to start the engine, but the lights were on and dim.  The driver’s side door was open, as was the glove box and the center console.  Though it was in reverse, the car was pulled up so that the front tires were against the curb, but they were not turned.  The passenger side door had been opened and not closed properly.  The weird part was, the GPS was left on the dash, my cards were still under the mess on the floor, and there was a ring of decent value I’d left on the passenger seat.  All of this was still there.  I even begun to think it was a prank by God only knows who.  All I knew was I was FURIOUS. 

Just before the local PD arrived, I also remembered that last night our dog had been giving a low growl.  Not the kind that is freaking out like he does for wild life, but a warning growl that he gives when sometimes someone’s out in the street, which at 10 at night, around here the kids are sometimes out at the basketball court, so we didn’t really think much of it.  With a new battery in the car, and where the battery level was when we found it, the timeline now makes sense,

I kept trying to figure out why our car seemed to be the only one hit, and why they’d leave it where they did.

When PD did arrive, the guy was already tired, and explained it was going to be a long morning.  We were the second stolen car he was working on this morning, and he said he expects more.  I asked why that was, and he tells me:

Overnight a guy ran from PD.  They caught him on R Ave, across town from me.  When they found him, they found he had a backpack full of prescription medications with addresses from various points around town, including several from a block away from us. 

After PD left, I was walking back to the house to feed the kids, who were waking up, as Hubbster was trying to get the car to start, when I realized that there is another car, left in place, but rifled through three doors down from me.  That same house has another car on the street with the keys sitting out on the seat that was left untouched.   It would appear the rest of our things were left behind because he was looking for medications, and that he was just hitting every few cars as he went along, got to the end, and found ours an easy get away.  NO idea why he left it, except maybe either he saw the car seats and grew a conscience, or, with the passenger door being oddly opened, he may have not been alone, but realized that with my mess, there was no place for his buddy, and left it at that point.

Vacation 2012: Stop 1, Ocean City

   So travel along with me, will you?  We left on a Saturday morning for the Washington Coast.  Many people get confused, because when you think of any seaside state, you think of it as coast and inland.  My home has a view of salt water… and many think it’s coastal.  It isn’t.  I live in the sound, and my view is actually the Guemes Channel.  Actually, let me borrow this here image from this site, slightly edited for my ability to demonstrate, and I’ll show you.

  Okay, so we left our little corner of the world for the Washington Coast.  We love to stay at Ocean City State Park.  Last year we stopped there to visit family, and had a great experience with the park, so this year we decided to return.  We spent two nights there this year, in order to better spend some time getting to know the place better.

Leaving home

The drive out to Ocean City is really one of my favorite parts: a ferry ride, miles and miles of nothing but forest, a few small “blink and you miss it” towns here and there, and more wild flowers than I think I’ve ever seen in a drive anywhere else.  It’s about 2 ½ hours from our house, and a fantastic way to start off any of our south-bound by the coast trips. 

We arrived to find our site wonderfully large, and quite private.  In fact, the surrounding vegetation so effectively screened us in, that we thought our spot was going to be too small, until we stepped out of the car and looked around.  We had plenty of space for two tents, all of our gear, all five of our camp chairs, and still extra run around space for the kids.  The Princess loves to use nearly any open floor space as a dance floor…

Our first night in was mostly spent setting up camp, and going out shopping for some of the many forgotten things like condiments.  (Oopsie….)  We did foil pouch dinners and roasted marshmallows, and then hit the beach.  Last time we were here, we didn’t try to walk to the beach from the camp.  Instead we drove into Ocean Shores and onto the beach with the car.  I had no idea, though I do believe our family out there may have made mention, what a hike it was.  First a short trek through the woods, then this prairie like area, up a hill, and FINALLY you get the sand and the waves and the sunshine.  The Hubster and I sat on a piece of driftwood and let the kids go crazy in the sand with their buckets and their tools. 

Now, ever since I learned that Washington State has its very own rainforest (and a subsequent lesson in the difference between tropical and temperate rainforests) I’ve wanted to go visit.  In all actuality, I only thought we had one; the famous Hoh Rainforest.  Turns out that there are at least three.  Doesn’t matter, I’ve spent nearly 20 years wanting to set foot in the Hoh.  So we spent day two with the plan to drive over 2 hours each way to get my little big self to the Hoh.  It was a perfectly warm, sunshine filled day… and we got a late start.  *facepalm*  We had a wide detour to pick up some essentials I had forgotten and we couldn’t get locally which also derailed us for another couple of hours.  (Way to go, Mom.)  By the time we got to the Quinault Rainforest, we weren’t sure we’d make it as far as the Hoh. 

We did, however, stop in the Quinault for our picnic lunch, and a ½ mile trail hike through a section of the forest.  I am still fascinated with how much moss is all over the place in these things. 

Loaded back up in the car and continued north, singing along with The Monkees, Bob Segar, and James Taylor…. cracking jokes along the way of vampire hunting because we kept seeing signs to Forks.  We hit an odd foggy patch, just about 25 miles out of Forks, with no cell signal, and no blue sky, and the jokes got even more frequent.  ;-)  We got our laughs at the beaches with the ever so creative names… “Beach 1”, “Beach 2”, “Beach 3”, “Beach 4” and “Beach 5”.  Suddenly the sky opened up again, turned bright blue, the temps rose, and we discovered we were very, very close to the Hoh road... and made our turn as soon as we reached it.

I was in tears when we passed the sign saying we had entered the Hoh Rainforest.  It’s hard to explain, but as silly as it was, the simple fact that for nearly 20 years this was something I’d wanted to do but kept eluding me, and here I was, finally where I’d waited so long to be… just had me all emotional.   It was late in the day, so we knew we weren’t going to do much, but the simple fact that I was finally there… yeah.

As we pulled in, we saw a Ranger trying to help an Asian family with their car, so we stopped to help.  Their hatchback on their rented mini-van wasn’t closing.  The latch completely malfunctioned.  Luckily for them, we had picked up an extra clothesline, which we happily handed over and tied their hatch to a backseat.  I stood watching Robert secure the hatch, when one of the guys introduced himself to me… Carl out of Vancouver BC.  (Okay, so the idea of an Asian guy named Carl cracked me up.)  He was explaining to me that their luck had been terrible, they had wrecked their own car the day before, and now this rental was broken. 

Sadly we got there so late that the interpretive center was closed… and the weather was too hot to leave the dog in the car to hike the “Hall of Mosses” that I still want to get the chance to do, as no pets are allowed on those trails, but we still were thrilled to be there, and are already planning a better organized trip back.

That evening was a lovely night of putting our feet up around the campfire, a couple cold brews for the “adults”, and the night I learned how to use my Dutch oven to make cornbread.  We all slept like rocks, and made our preparations to strike camp the next day, bound for Oregon.



How the Princess Broke Her Tooth

   Our trip was incredible, but we had the one, I think important, point of contention.  And I want to write up a nifty essay of how great our week was, but the one thing is just so much its own story, that I am writing a post for it alone.  The story of Sun Lakes, and how my daughter lost a chunk of her tooth.

   There are two things I learned on this trip.  One, my tiny house is HUGE after a week in a car with three kids, a dog, and a grumpy hubby.  Two, while I tend to not be a huge fan of Oregon in general, I have to hand it to them, from what I saw on this trip, they take AMAZING care of their state parks… where Washington isn’t the worst out there, but has much work to do in this area. 

   Sun Lakes State Park is located in a surprisingly beautiful part of the state.  The Geology to the area is fascinating.  Near the foot of Dry Falls, it’s set inside a canyon and at the edge of Blue Lake.  It is hot and dry, very low humidity and very desert like.  Trees are few and far in between, and shade is a precious commodity.  Our campsite had morning shade, but for most of the day, there was no hiding from the sun and the 98+ degree temperatures, except to go for a drive in the AC or to go for a swim.  It sounds awful, but with careful planning, it’s well worth it.  It’s a popular area for dropping in a boat and going out for fishing or water skiing, and there is a variety of other things to do…. But that’s not the point to this story.  The point is, it’s a great area, well worth having a park located, but it’s sadly wasted by the management of the park itself. 

   The first day we arrived, it looked impressive.  The lady at the counter was kind and helpful.  We saw nothing out of the ordinary.  We saw the many sites full to the limit with campers, nearly every site with a truck hauling a boat, and the tables full of coolers…. We knew we were in for a campground of young folks, boats, and beer.  Next to us, on both sides, however, the sites were empty.  We left that evening for Grand Coulee City to check out the laser show on the dam.  (SOOOOO worth camping out for, BTW.)  When we came home, we still had one empty neighbor site.  We were rolling in well past quiet hours, so we made every effort to keep it quiet for the newbies.

   Two sites down on the other side was a large family, headed up by a guy named Mike.  They were Indian, and looked nearly Hispanic from the first glance.  (Sadly, that point is important later.)  Halfway across the park was several sites all packed with a huge group of, what we believe are, Russians of various ages, partying hard.  They partied loudly through the wee hours of the morning, and even when they finally quit, there were two voices loud as can be right next to us, at a bench in front of the ladies room, going through strange cycles of conversation, all in a foreign language.  It started with a booming yell, that startled me awake, and a following argument… cycled into a lecturing sounding conversation, worked into laughing, then crying, and back to yelling, and just kept doing this until 5 am.  No one around us got sleep, and later talking to other campers, we all had the same thoughts… this day and age, they confronting them was either a) going to drag someone else into the mess, or b) you just never know what the drunken idiots were carrying.  We also all agreed; none of us got any sleep.  And not once did a ranger come by to try to silence either ordeal. 

   The next morning, after I cooked up breakfast over a camp fire, I decided it was time to take the Princess and get our butts into the shower.  It is also important to note, there was only one shower, but no line.  All morning long, there was very minimal traffic to the shower, as in this heat and setting, most the girls were showering in the evening and hitting the lakes during the day, so the shower was wide open all morning long. 

   In Washington State Parks, showers cost 50 cents for 3 minutes.  (Oregon, showers were free…. Just sayin’.)  So we got our clothes at the ready in the dressing corner (supposed to be a dry area to keep your things) and lined up our toiletries.  It quickly became evident after depositing our coins, that the drain was clogged.  In fact, by the time our three minutes were up, the entire bathroom, including the 4 or 5 toilet papered, nasty, filthy toilet stalls were flooded by our one single shower… at least an inch deep.  I took the Princess over where there should have been dry land to try to get her dressed and get us out of there, embarrassed that we’d flooded the bathroom, and grossed out that even in shower shoes, we were standing in the lovely water. 

   So there we are, standing in a mucky swamp, nekkid except for our shower shoes, and I’m trying to figure out how to get a diaper and clothes on the Princess without drenching all of it as well, when she makes a move, slips on the slick floor, and goes face first into the bench.  It was immediately clear she’d broken a tooth and sunk it deep into her lip.  It wasn’t as bloody and terrifying in appearance as when the Littlest Prince had his incident, but was clearly not good either.  So there I am, trying to figure out how to now comfort a screaming three year old, AND get clothes on the both of us, while standing on slick tiles in a flooded bathroom, to get her out and to the site so I could get to the first aid kit.  I still don’t even know how I did it.  I just remember finally getting the clothes on, leaving all of our stuff behind, and as soon as I got to the door, yelling for the Hubby to get the first aid kit, NOW.  And later I learned that he stood there in a stunned and confused daze, but the Eldest Son caught on and did get the ball rolling.

   I got the Princess into a camp seat, and we learned that the instant ice pack in the first aid kit was a dud.  SO, we double bagged some of the dirty ice from the cooler.  (gotta do what you have to do, right?)  Eldest did a fantastic job keeping the Princess calm, snuggled with her, read books to her, and kept her comfortable for about an hour.  Once she was set, I went back and retrieved our items, and tried to track down the maintenance crew that kept rolling by in little John Deere carts… but were impossible to catch.  I finally gave up and walked my angry butt down to the front booth.

   The same young lady was working the registration desk, and was apparently the only person on duty with a brain in their heads.  She was quick to get on it.  She radioed the maintenance crew, who apparently didn’t know I could hear them object to having to go get work done, but she demanded they get to the booth immediately and speak to her.  When they arrived and saw me there, and were briefed, their answer was, “Oh we’ve known about that for a while now, but the shower was busy so we just decided to worry about it later”  (Remembering that I was camping directly across from the restrooms and was already fully aware that this is a false statement… there was very little traffic to the shower.)  As we spoke to other campers later, we learned they had been filing complaints about this same shower for days…. It took my daughter getting injured to finally get it fixed, and it was fixed in 10 minutes.

   Then the gal at the booth radioed the ranger on duty.  Apparently they have one ranger on duty between several parks, and he was on his way to Steamboat Rock Park, 20 minutes away.  She told me that Ranger Fulton (I believe that was the name) would need to get in touch with us and fill out a safety/incident report.  I let her know we weren’t going far, just to the visitor’s center, 5 minutes away, to see Dry Falls, and to the swimming part of the lake, right in front of her booth.  And true to that, we were at our site most of the entire day.  We saw the ranger drive by repeatedly, but never stopped to get the report.

   We did learn; however… remember the Indian family two sites down?  They had been fast asleep by the time we’d come back from the laser show, and were awakened by the partying and arguing just like the rest of us… but they got the tickets for it.  6 people all ticketed $150 each because the folks who complained heard foreign languages, saw a family that looked Mexican, and pointed their fingers at them.  The ranger, who couldn’t be bothered to make night rounds and resolve the issue right away, merely came by and issued tickets in the afternoon, but couldn’t find the time to get the safety report done.  It was a full 24 hours before we left the park for home, and never did get that report done.

   I wanted the documentation, because if her tooth turns out to be a bigger problem, I’m sending the bill to the state for their faulty maintenance…. But also to cover my ass if someone was to start asking questions of me.  For their own liability, the Ranger should have filled it out, copy to me or not, as there was an injury in, and cause by, their facilities.  Understanding the serious need for this report, before we left for home, I walked back down to the booth to find it closed.  Three ranger vehicles out front (all outfitted with stickers bragging that they are outfitted with Sirius Satellite Radio services) and voices inside, but a sign saying they will open at 2:30, and another one saying they’ll be back at 3pm.  (Check out is at 1.)  The Eldest, being an eager 8 year old, started pounding on the door, but the folks inside refused to answer.  This is frightening when you consider there is big red lettering outside the booth stating the AED is located inside…. And if it was needed, it wasn’t going to be available with staff ignoring someone pounding on the door, because apparently the state can pay for Sirius, but not for staff to be on duty.

   So in the long run, we left with no report being filed, ½ less of a tooth, and me, pissed off and spending most of today trying, still to no avail, to figure out who I need to reach to file a complaint.  We loved the area, loved the park for location, view, and activities, but are not sure if we’ll ever be returning, as I heard several other families there say, because the park appears to be run so horribly.