Hiking the McKenzie Trail - Tamolitch Pool

This weekend we hiked part of the McKenzie Trail. We set off in high spirits, expecting a fun time.

The ladies setting off

The weather was perfect - sunny and warm but not hot. Peter and I were outnumbered by the ladies - Gina, Autumn, Hanni and Emily.  We didn't leave until after 10 am so the group was well rested.  When we arrived at the trail head and there were about 20 cars already parked.  We stuffed the food and water into the backback and started the trek to Tamolitch Pool.  A 4 mile hike through forest and alongside the McKenzie.

Autumn trying to stay out of camera range

Before leaving last minutes phone calls and texts were attempted.  I can tell you there is no coverage up here so there is no point in even trying. 

It took us about 1.5 hours to drive from Eugene. Of course we had to stop for one bathroom break.  When I was younger Dad/Husband I hated stopping but now that I've matured, I'll stop about every hour.  I call this wisdom gained through experience.

Hanni standing by her tree

The first place we stopped was next to this tree. Last year we hiked the trail and took a picture of Hanni next to the same tree.  Back then Hanni could stand inside the tree.  No more. She has grown so much in just 12 months.




We leisurely walked the trail. I"m always the slowest and everyone has to stop at least once to wait for me to catch up.

Stopping to enjoy the wonder

This trail is so beautiful everyone stops to take pictures and enjoy the view and smell. Did I mention it smells wonderful in the forest.  I can feel the stress leaving my body with every step.  My whole attitude improves with each minute in the beauty of God's creation.  Here are few pictures along the walk.

The destination of this short hike is Tamolitch Pool.  Here is a glimpse as we approach it.

Tamolitch Pool in the Background. Notice the Blue Color

When we arrived we stopped took a few photographs:

Here are the lovely ladies standing at the rim.  It is hard to tell due to the clarity of the water but it is good 80 foot drop to the pool.

Doesn't everyone looks happy to be there.  And this was before eating lunch. Trust me - we were hungry.

A couple picture of the Blue Pool without people blocking the view.

Looking Down on the Pool.  See how small the people look in the background!

The Water is Clear and COLD!

Before eating lunch, we tried to find a way down to pool surface.  We saw the group down by the water edge and wanted to get down there if possible. Not so easy. After hiking another 30 minutes we arrived back at the rim to eat lunch.  After dining on food, I picked up at Trader Joe's earlier, I set off alone to get down to the surface.

I made it there, exhausted.  I'm not young anymore. My reward was getting to take a couple more pictures.

If you look closely you can see a person standing on the rim - it is in the top center of the photo.  That is about the spot the earlier picture of the ladies was snapped.

I took this one right at the edge of the pool.  The water is very, very clear.  It is really deep here.  A couple crazy people jumped in and told me it was freezing.  I think the temperature is mid 30's. 

I put my hands in and washed off my face. It was refreshing and it removed any temptation to dive in.

After lingering a long while we started the hike out.  By this time we were thirsty, having already finished our water.  So we were ready to get back to the car and water waiting for us.

Here is one last picture - Beauty and Beauty And Beauty.

Gina and Emily - McKenzie Trail

The Girls

An earlier post explained our nicknames for the various grouping of our kids.  Here is a picture of the the girls - Elspeth and Autumn in all their cuteness.

Snider Rule #3 - Let's Have a Food Fight - No Thanks!

How to Ruin a Good Meal

My favorite time of the day ==> eating dinner with family and friends.  Lingering for over an hour eating, talking, discussing, sharing, and laughing. Time spent with people while sharing food is refreshing physically, emotionally and spiritually.

On the really good days, a wonderful aroma is lingering in the front yard and I catch it as soon as open the car door.  The sun is still up, the sky is blue and it is almost dinner time.  I'm getting hungry just typing this.

One thing that detracts from a pleasant meal is grumbling at the table.  It brings everyone down and deflates the person who spent time preparing the meal.  On the very rare occasion that Gina is too sick to cook, I can get apprehensive about planning a meal that everyone will like.  Back in the day with 11 people being fed each evening it was impossible to please everyone every night.  Most nights there was at least one person who wasn't going to enjoy the food as much as the rest of us.

Here is how Gina solved much of the angst and conflict around meals and children who could be picky eaters:

• Only prepare one meal that is shared by everyone
• You must taste every item on your plate. We want to develop an openness to new foods. Plus you learn that your taste change over time. What you once hated, you may enjoy when you get older.
• Only eat what you want and how much you want.  This is the number one way to avoid conflict at the table. With all our kids we rarely had any leftovers.
• Prepare a much loved dessert on nights we are testing a new recipe or it is challenging meal for several kids.  Gina was careful to put reasonable portions on the kids plate.  If she knew it was something they didn't like the portion would be small.  They had to finish their entire meal (or receive special grace) to get dessert.  This was an amazing way to motivate people to try something new.
• You don't have to eat anything you paid for!  Ok, ok I know what you are thinking but it was accepted by everyone. This was a special rule I came up with on the spur of the moment when being questioned by the kids about why my plate didn't have every item on it. I didn't use it very often but there are a couple things I hate, so I pulled rank on the kids.

I can't wait for dinner tonight!

The Boys, The Girls, The Littles

We are not a normal family. That is not something we celebrate or aspired to.  It just happened. The fact we have nine kids is just the tip of the iceberg of our atypicality (a new word).  One part of our family culture is giving group names to sets of our children. 

The Boys - Silas, Paul, Nathan, and Luke 

The oldest four.  We started saying this after just the Paul was born.

The Girls - Ellie and Autumn

So stunned to have girls they were promptly named this to distinguish them from The Boys.

The Littles - Abe, Peter and Hanni

They aren't real fond of this name but of course the older siblings call them this all the time.

These pictures started me thinking about The Boys:

The Boys 2013 - Luke's Wedding

These guys spent hours upon hours playing together.  It is heart warming to seem them interact as adults.  After a few years of becoming individuals and adults they are once again able to hang out together and have fun.

Being a parent is hard work but these pictures show a little of the reward.

Everybody Loves Waffles

On a typical Saturday morning pancakes are the meal of choice (which I wrote about here and here). But sometimes a change up is called for and that means waffles.  Now waffles meet even more of the Dad Cooks criteria than pancakes which is always a good thing.  Plus anytime you can use a gadget it is a bonus.  

So I love to get up early, take the waffle iron out of the closet (yes, I store it in the coat closet), mix up the batter, and let Gina sleep in or take a long morning shower before anyone else uses the hot water.

My recipe is based on this cookbook.

 The Loved and Well Used King Arthur Cookbook

 It is so easy to make from scratch I'm not tempted to use a box mix. Also, I enjoy the satisfaction of crafting a meal from the simplest ingredient list possible.

Recipe:

          4 Cups Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

          1 Tablespoon Baking Powder
          1 Teaspoon Baking Soda
          1 Teaspoon Salt
          3 Tablespoons Sugar (Add more or less per your taste)
          Milk + 1 large spoon of Yogurt so that entire amount equals 1 Quart
          4 eggs
         Half to Whole stick of butter melted (depending on how much you like butter)

• Mix the Flour, Baking Powder, Baking Soda, Salt and Sugar in large bowl.  Make sure to mix well.
• In another container scoop one large spoonful of yogurt and pour enough milk so that together they measure 1 Quart (you can skip the yogurt if you don't have any)
• Add 4 eggs and stir well
• Add melted butter and stir again
• Slowly pour liquid into the Dry Ingredients while stirring.
• Do not over mix. Mix well enough to leave no dry ingredients and then stop.  Lumps are good!
• Let sit for 15 minutes
• Now you are ready

*If you or your family are very sensitive to whole wheat's sometimes assertive flavor, try substituting 2 tablespoons orange juice for 2 tablespoons of the milk in this recipe. The orange juice tames whole wheat's potentially tanic taste, without adding any citrus flavor of its own.

The critical part of cooking waffles is making sure the iron is hot. So I turn the iron before I even begin gathering ingredients.  That way it is plenty hot and ready when I'm ready.

My waffle iron is a cheap one and has worked well for many years.  I don't recommend spending a bunch of money on a tool that you don't use often.  

Pour one cup of batter onto the hot iron. 

Batter on the iron, ready to cook.

The waffle doesn't fill the entire iron but I like it this way since there is less mess and the clean up is quicker.

Waffle ready to eat!

While Peter and Hanni are waiting for the waffles they lounging around in anticipation.  The noise I make in the kitchen getting ready is just load enough to get them out of bed.  For some reason it doesn't seem loud enough to get anyone over the age of 13 out of bed.

Different Cups

 Seeing this picture makes me smile. It gives me a happy feeling.  

Does that seem a little strange?  It is just a picture of cups on our kitchen counter.  Yes that is true but it means more than that.  Each cup is different and belongs to one our our kids.  We started this tradition when the kids were little. To keep the dish washing load down, everybody had a different color glass.  It was washed in the evening wash (unless it got dirty for some reason).  Now it is fun to buy a new cup for the married in kids.  It means you are a Snider - part of the big, messy, fun family.

Snider Rule #2 - What is your job?

Gina and I spotted Gus the van last week.  Most of you know, Gina drove a 12 passenger Ford Club Wagon for many years.  We bought the van the Spring of 1997 and sold it Winter 2012.  A family just a few blocks away bought the van but we haven't seen it driving around much and wondered if it broke down or had some problem.  Well, we were at Hanni's basketball game and the van was in the parking lot. When I entered the gym I spotted the couple that purchased the van and it turned out their daughter was on the team we were playing against.  So Gus lives on.

Here is a picture of Gus.  He was also called Megacooper - but only after I hand painted the roof white to cover up some rust spots.

Here is a blurry picture of Gus.

Seeing the van got me to reminiscing about driving the entire family around town.  That led to me thinking about another quirky thing our family did.  Gina would say the same thing to everyone  each time we embarked on a trip to visit friends or really anyone.  She would turn to the back and say ----

WHAT IS YOUR JOB WHEN WE GET THERE????

Everybody responded enthusiastically (we had to work at that sometimes) ----

MAKE SURE EVERYONE ELSE HAS A GOOD TIME!

We all benefited from this encouragement.  It is a good thing to be reminded the world doesn't revolve around us and that one way to love our neighbor is to make sure they have a good time.

The big surprise is discovering that when we stop focusing on ourselves and think of others first we end up having a better time too!

Gina is a wise woman. 

Link to Rule #1 - Best Rule Ever!

Sunday Morning = Eggs Cooked to Order

Sunday morning at the Snider House means -  eggs for breakfast. I love getting up before church and cooking eggs to order for anybody in the house.  

See how happy Hanni is as she gets ready to dig into breakfast!

I'm not much of a cook.  Gina has to be really sick before even considering me as an option to pinch hit. Breakfast is the one meal I have confidence cooking. I suggest all Dads master breakfast for a couple reasons:

1. Create a memory for you kids that will last way beyond their childhood. 
2. Give your wife a break from the routine.  She can sleep in a little and also take extra time to get ready for church.  Trust me, she will appreciate it.

My breakfast repertoire consists of easy to master items:

• Eggs - Any Style
• French Toast
• Pancakes
• Waffles

Sunday morning is dedicated to eggs.  I'll cook as many eggs and in any style for those who are up in time to squeeze in breakfast before we drive off to church. 

When all the kids were still at home I would easily cook up 2 dozen eggs.  Now, I'm down to just two kids regularly feasting on eggs with me.  For some reason everyone above the age of 13 would rather sleep until the last minute. 

Another suggestion for Dads - Buy a cast iron skillet and claim it as your own.  Of course anybody can use it but since I am the predominate user it is referred to as Dad's skillet.  The cast iron holds heat and cooks more evenly than other types.  I've had the one in the picture as long as we have had kids. 

Here is a picture of two eggs cooking.  You can see three in a bowl because I always crack them in a bowl first to make sure there are not bad eggs. 

The last picture is included as a special bonus.  Some of the older kids get up late and even need a little pick me up in the morning.  Sometimes I make coffee for them.  Autumn likes a hot Americano in the morning. So here is a picture of Autumn and the Americano.  Autumn is on the left completely covered by a blanket. She can't believe I would take a picture of her before she is fully dressed.

Best Snider Rule Ever! - According to the kids

Wouldn't it be great to have a serious conversation with your kids about rules.  One where you could ask them what rules do they think are effective, fair and realistic.

About a year ago we had just such a conversation.  During Christmas everyone was at the house and the kids had a discussion where they came to the unanimous agreement on the very best Snider Family Rule.  Did I mention it was UNANIMOUS - believe it or not everyone agreed.  This doesn't happen often! 

Now at that point our kids were 25, 23, 21, 20. 17, 16, 14, 11 and 8 years old.  Some married, some with children of their own, some single living on their own, and others living at home.  So it comes from those still living under our rules and those just looking back in the rear view mirror of our family life.

"WHAT WAS THE BEST SNIDER RULE?"

The answer: 

PLEASE STOP!!

Any person in the family could say these simple words and everyone - parents included had to stop.

Why would we ever have a rule like that and why was regarded so highly?

This picture helps put things in perspective:

This was taken when we only had 5 children and Gina was 2 weeks from delivering number 6.  Everybody looks happy but any parent taking a look at that crew can see that things could get out of hand pretty quickly if there was no rule of law.

The simple - Please Stop Rule helped our family respect and look out for each other.  Some of the reasons it is a good rule:

• The youngest and weakest always had an outlet when they felt overwhelmed, picked on, or backed into a corner.
• All the children knew the day would come where they would benefit from this simple rule. So it was rigorously enforced by everyone.
• We (Scott & Gina) benefited because it created a pause where we could sort out what was going on and deal appropriately with the situation.
• The children could use it with us. For example if Scott was wrestling or tickling one of the kids they might be squirming around or even running away.  Now you can't be sure if they want to keep playing or really want to stop.  We all knew just say "Please Stop" and it would. Many times one of the younger kids would be wrestling with an older sibling and might start to whimper.  The other kids would say - "say please stop and they have to stop".

What do you think?