Camp Wethehekawe:Day Four

We got a later start today. Camp Wethehekawe or no, the children have to eat so I went to the grocery store. It was uninspiring.

This afternoon though, we took the Lowell-Larimer Road to the Snohomish River. It is the closest thing my suburbanite children get to rural life besides their brush with it every year in Nevada. Mark decided to tell us which animals were horses and which were cows. Thanks for clearing up the confusion. Emma has read The Black Stallion, Misty of the Chincoteague and King of the Wind this summer so she fancies herself the horse expert of the family. She informed her brothers that a stallion is a dad horse and a mare is a girl. Mark chuckled and said, “Mayors are horses?!” Emma, in her best long suffering voice, explained that she said mare, which is spelled differently than mayor. Mark was undeterred in his joke though. He said, “It would be funny if mayors were horses though.” Emma sighed deeply.

Our plan was to pick blackberries along the river like we do every year but this has been a strange weather year with nothing blooming or ripening on time so I wasn’t too surprised when there were not very many ready for picking. It was a pretty walk along the river though. I love living in such a pleasant place.

How about those snazzy shirts?

From there we went to Forest Park where the kids played...




and their tired mother sat on a park bench with an old friend…



So that was it today. Pretty simple.

We came home and got Mark in his “armor” as he calls it for soccer. Anyone could wear shin guards. It takes a Mark to wear armor. He was very excited for soccer and has been reminding me all week how many days I had until I was a soccer mom.



As my first act as soccer mom, I forgot a water bottle. Luckily we found an IKEA cup in the car and filled it with water at the YMCA and could pretend I was a good soccer mom.

While I think Mark’s temperament is right for soccer, I’m not sure his body composition is. He’s wearing the shoes Braeden wore during his brief soccer stint as a 7 year old. They are too long but just wide enough. Poor stout Mark. Does Stride Rite make soccer cleats? That’s where I have to get all of his shoes…extra wide.

Any experience Mark lacks in soccer, he makes up for in sheer enthusiasm. He said things like, “BAM!” and “BOOM BABY!” when he got the ball in the goal. He talked non-stop to the other boys around him and at the end confided to his coach, “I am sweaty!” And he was. He worked hard.