Trip to John Day, Oregon

We finally made it to John Day in Oregon--Alyosha's birthday wish come true. If you ask him a question he will find a way to include dinosaur, paleontologist, fossil, petrified wood or something of that genre in the answer--no matter the question. We had a beautiful time and a peaceful weekend in Eastern Oregon. The geography is just amazing there. While we were rolling through we couldn't help but imagine what the pioneers were thinking when they were traveling this way to make their homestead somewhere in this vast silence yet enormous explosion of land. I describe the great rifts and bulges almost like being on the moon. Enormous hills and valleys--then cracks so you can see 50 million years worth of layers like an epic tale unfolding as quickly as you can lay your eyes on a new inch of earth.

On the road to John Day. We couldn't have asked for better weather. We were all beginning to get a cold-or maybe the swine flu, you never know, but as soon as we got into the dry sunny high desert, the sniffles and coughs disappeared.

The kids were pretty good--reading books and marveling out of the window

Alyosha put his eyes on every piece of dust floating around John Day. He found a fossil or imprint in everything--and even though we weren't allowed to disturb the environment in the monument, Alyosha still came home with a ton of rocks. (most were legitimate finds in places that are legal--Alyosha follows the law to the letter, no matter how much he would want to keep something, he wouldn't if it isn't allowed.)

Barry, the camp host, told us about a special place that had exposed volcanic ash from a volcano that erupted about 12 million years ago. The ash has been compressed to fragile rocks--kind of like chalk. If you look closely, you can see imprints from the plants when this area was a swamp and horses, camels, bear-dogs and rhinos lived in the area. So much to discover if you search out. Alyosha's best find here was a 'rock' that had tree ring imprints--a tree that lived 12 million years ago.

adventures of a paleontologist

Luka was more interested in finding poop--not the fossilized kind. You can even tell what he is saying in the photo!

We stayed 3 nights in the Fish House Inn in Dayville and Barry was our host. He was wonderful and warm. He told us some secrets about the area and just shared about life in general in Eastern Oregon--pretty opposite from life in Portland, but still interesting. People come from all over the world to study at the fossil beds. This is pretty much in the middle of no where. There is one cafe, occasionally open and a Mercantile--for sale--by the way. I will admit that we imagined buying the little Mercantile and fostering the kids interest in everything ancient and turned to stone. Even better, there is a little ranch for sale next to the Dayville Mercantile--perfect to host a R.V. and camping site...any takers on our Eastern Oregon adventure?

The Fish House Inn is in the background here. We cooked out on the grill they provided every evening. I am sure the cafe in Dayville was nice, but we had German brats and steak with Washington state Merlot and whole milk, depending on your age... It was DELICIOUS.
We did a 3.4, can't leave out the .4--you will see why, a 3.4 mile hike with the kids up and down the Blue Basin Trail inside the fossil beds monument. The kids, excluding Niki, walked the entire trail. According to the official travel guides, the Blue Basin Overlook hike is "Strenuous, 600 ft. elevation gain. A strenuous, but rewarding, loop trail brings you to a spectacular vista overlooking the John Day River Valley. It is dusty in places and may be impassable in wet weather" Alyosha and Luka hiked every step of the 3.4 miles and they explored and wondered at everything-the complaining was minimum and only for food--which we stopped for 2 snacks along the way. They enjoyed the hike and the beautiful fresh air. Four hours for 3.4 miles isn't too bad. I love it, and it is really encouraging for when the boys get older; we are going to get into even more amazing adventures together.

Papa and Niki at the start of our hike. It was chilly, but perfect for our hike. The sun was shining and the air was crisp and fresh. At the beginning of the trail we had 2 choices; either the .75 mile walk inside the valley or the 3.4 mile hike around the valley. We looked at each other and wondered which road to choose--the difficult one was a thousand times worth it.

Alyosha and Luka spotted a deer that was finished off by a cougar a while ago. Of course, the deer skeleton wasn't a deer on our discovery mission--it was a plant eating dinosaur who stopped to take its last drink in the ancient river then got attacked by a velociraptor and died here.

One of our picnic stops. We had sandwiches and apples on the side of the trail and only a couple of other hikers passed us along the way. October is definitely the best time to come here. You can really experience the quiet and the significant spirituality of the area when you have it to yourself.

Look at that view in the background. Luka kept saying "it is dangerous, dangerous" because the trail was so steep on one side. He kept imitating falling down the slope with his sounds..luckily not his body. I held his hand the entire walk!

Bench brake on the walk. Luka didn't want to sit still--keep going, keep going. We are only a third of the way through at this rest stop.

Here we are at the peak. The blue-green claystones began as volcanic ash-falls deposited 28 million years ago by the ancestral Cascade Mountains. These volcanoes were precursors to those active today like St. Helens. I want to emphasize--that is volcanic ash--that has been compressed for 28 million years. Can you imagine the volcano that erupted? Those eruptions are inspiration for almost every picture Alyosha paints right now.

Niki needed his snacks about every .75 miles too. He loved the fresh air and the hike just as much as we did. Roma made sure not to miss a step either--I don't think that Niki would enjoy a roller-coaster fall down the Blue Basin into the valley.

Roma's reasoning for staying ahead of Luka and I on the downhill of the trail was so that he could catch us in case we fell down the 'dangerous' slope. Can you picture Roma jumping with Niki to grab onto Lukas 'arm' (leg in Luka language) before he slips over the edge? That is a scene for a movie.

grand

Luka looking over his triumph.

Here is a picture of all of us on the downhill slope of our hike.

The daze after a hike is a good feeling

Exploration in the old West

This barn has been here for over a hundred years--this used to be a prime sheep herding area. Unfortunately sheep wool production doesn't pay off anymore and cattle have taken over.

Alyosha the photographer

Our car is comfortable and made the trip smooth and cool. We don't use it in the city much, but I am so thankful that we have it--and that it is paid off!

That is Sheep Rock in the background. Sheep Rock, is 1,100 feet above the John Day River.

Here we are on the 45th parallel, exactly between the equator, my home climate, and the North Pole, Roma's home climate. It is a perfect compromise for us--maybe we should move here.

Baltic Amber

Baltic amber has been used for hundreds of years as a natural cure for many things. It even helped saved the amber transporters from the bubonic plague; The Prussian Priest Matthaus Praetorius recorded that in 1680, "During the plague not a single amberman from Gdansk, Klaipeda, Konigsberg or Liepaja died of the disease"

I actually made it because I wanted Luka to wear one for his teething--those 2 year molars are killing him. The poor guy acts totally out of character and I know it is because of the molars coming in. Natural Baltic Amber has been used for centuries by the people in the old countries of Europe for many medical purposes. And one of the uses has been to make baby teething necklaces from small chips of amber taken from the sea. According to folklore and tradition, placing a simple amber necklace around a baby's neck helps the baby through the teething process by reducing the pain.

Supposedly it is the succinic acid that is released as your body heats up the amber. The ancients thought amber had have magical curative powers. They surely had no idea that they were high in succinic acid, but they knew they worked magic on their ills. Even before mankind knew that there were things called acids antibiotics, the people of Europe recognized that amber had magical curative powers. They used it when we today would use an antibiotic.

So, here we are--Three boys and their Baltic amber necklaces.

Niki the Laugher

Niki has so many emotions. Yesterday I was reading a story to Luka and there was a scary part where we both gasped. Niki was also listening to the story and when he heard us gasp his eyes filled with tears and his lower lip curled under down to his little chin. We quickly told him that it was ok and he squeezed out a smile while his eyes were full of tears. See the video...he is just starting to laugh all the time!

By the way, Luka doesn't have fifth disease. He had a bad reaction to the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine. It gave him a slight measles rash and a cold, which he is now getting over. This was a vaccine that he was supposed to get when he was 1 year old, but I waited until two and a half because that is a serious one--I'm glad I did. I know the vaccines are good, but it is important to follow your own common sense rather than just depending on what others tell you. Doctors give advice for the general crowd, unfortunately, and each person is an individual.

Fifth Disease

From somewhere, Luka picked up fifth disease...or the slapped cheek disease. It is mostly harmless but highly contagious so here we go with the rounds of illness again! His little cheeks or bright red. I thought that he was just wiping his snots on his cheek and they were getting chapped, but no! Well, at least he doesn't feel too bad--but he is getting annoyed with skin rashes! He said "spots, spots, spots like chicken pox!"

Here comes the bride and there runs the groom! Run, Run Alyosha! I heard the girl say that she was going to have the most perfect princess wedding that is so beautiful, EVER. And she is going to marry Tom, if Alyosha isn't Tom then she will just change his name to Tom--there you go. I think it is time we start training Alyosha which girls are acceptable and which ones are to be avoided!

Niki isn't worried about fifth disease, he is under the immune protection of Mama's Milk. It's funny that these little infants are so vulnerable yet they have such a veil of protection.

It's a good thing that Niki has some special protection, because with two brothers that love him as much as Alyosha and Luka do--there is no way to prevent germ sharing!

A chicken pox: Part 2

Exactly 14 days after Alyosha's chicken pox appeared--and right when we thought little Luka had super immunity--he broke out. He is super strong, but the virus has taken its opportunity to live on every part of his skin that it could find. Alyosha had about 70-80 spots all together, whereas Luka is probably holding about 200 spots from the tip top of the head to the point of his toe. It is like we timed the virus to come at just the right time--Luka shouldn't be contagious anymore after Wednesday, and if it was up to me, the baby would come on Wednesday!

Chicken Pox Upon Our House!

We rang in the Chinese New Year, the Year of the Ox, with the chicken pox. Saturday morning, the day we thought everyone was healthy for the first time in 2 weeks, we were dressing to go to the New Year festival when we noticed red spots all over Alyosha's body. The Pediatrician on call was sure from my description that Alyosha didn't have chicken pox because no kid gets the chicken pox anymore. His assurance wasn't because he listened to the description, it was because chicken pox has been wiped out by 95% in the United States since the vaccine has been mandatory in the early 1990's. He said that we were fine to go ahead to the festival because half of the kids there have viruses anyway and we would fit in just fine. So, off we went to enjoy the dragon dances and the new year of the ox.

Monday morning we decided to go have the spots checked out, but I had my first acupuncture appointment, so the boys went to the hospital on their own. It is so rare for kids to get the chicken pox nowadays, that when the first competent (ie. experienced) doctor saw them, the boys got put into the quarantine room and about 10 doctors who had never seen them before came in to see a real live case. Some thought that we were crazy parents wanting our kids to get sick with this deadly virus. Others wanted to take Luka and immunize him right away, or else they thought we would be admitting him into the hospital within a week for a case of 'sibling' chicken pox so bad he would never survive.

Roma didn't make the final decision until I got there and one of the pediatric professors (not a resident) talked to us again. I told her that we don't know where our future will bring us. Since it has been proven that the chicken pox vaccine needs a booster every so often, perhaps like a tetanus shot, I wanted the kids to have a natural immunity that will last a lifetime--like the rest of the world has. The Dr. Professor was open enough to understand where we were coming from and even agreed that the chicken pox aren't dangerous for healthy kids. We got our final diagnosis and left just as we came, only with a little more information.

Our complication was the little one still hiding from the viruses and crises of the world inside my tummy. It isn't good for a newborn to be exposed to the chicken pox. I totally believe in vaccines; I know that they have saved many lives. I am against unnecessary drugs, precautions and vaccines that prevent our bodies from being exposed to things that our bodies should be able to handle, even if it is difficult. If our body doesn't practice fighting things it is capable of fighting, it will not have the practice to fight the new illnesses we might not have vaccine for. God, genetics and evolution are pretty intelligent and the baby will be safe against the chicken pox because when I was 6 years old, I had the chicken pox which gave me a lifelong immunity (we tested my blood just to make sure) and newborns have all of the mother's immunities -- as long as they are 100% breast fed -- for the first 2-3 months of their lives.

Everyone is Sick

We are all sick with head colds. All 4 of us at the same time. It is a good time to be sick, because that means we will be all strong and healthy when the baby comes. We were also only on the downhill slope of sickness when Cheryl came to visit. Well enough to enjoy her (and hopefully not get her sick) and then it hit us the day after she left--with migraines and earaches and very loud snoring kids. We are getting over it now and Saturday, January 17th puts this pregnancy at 37 weeks officially--Which means the baby is full term and can come any day now!!

It is so nice to see and catch up with Cheryl. The kids LOVE her and so do we. She is still in Vladivostok saving the big cats. She promised us that she is going to start blogging again; we are going to bug her until she keeps her promise because we like to keep up with the exciting happenings in lovely Vladivostok. Our doors are always open for you, Cheryl, no matter where we live--come visit again next year or even earlier if you are around! Sometime we will come visit you, although we are quite a large package of guests!

More on The Secret

Maybe it isn't such a good idea to watch The Secret and allow attraction to affect your everyday life like I have been talking about. Here is what happened to us this weekend:

It was supposed to be a 3 day weekend for us. Romka took off on Friday so that we could go visit a friend who moved to Yaccolt. We were going to spend a wonderful day outside in the gorgeous weather and the kids were going to play together like angels and we were going to grill our dinner over the fire--the idea was perfect. Then, I am not sure why, except for the fact, maybe, that the friend that we were going to visit has a broken hand and foot and if there was anything that she needed help doing we would of course do for her--but, Romka took a sick day instead of a vacation day.

Well, as attraction laws work, Romka attracted himself a real sick day. He got to deal with 3 sick people at home, with liquids and foods flying out of their bodies in various directions. He got to spend half his sick day cleaning up puke and the other half of the day in the Emergency Room.

We are all better now. Over our stomach virus--and Roma never got it. Let me suggest the next time you are really sick, take a vacation day -- you will be automatically better and maybe some plane tickets will just fall into your lap.