Hike #1 Kamikaze Falls/Teneriffe Falls

So, I finally went on a real Washington state mountain hike yesterday.  I decided on Teneriffe Falls, because it is located on the next mountain next to Mt Si, which is one of the most popular hikes in the Central Cascades. But this hike is supposed to much shorter (6 miles roundtrip vs 8) and less difficult with a smaller elevation gain and with it's many switchbacks vs just a rough trail straight up. So, to put it into perspective...
Teneriffe Falls hike: (labeled as an easy to moderate hike on the Washington Trails Guide!)
     Trailhead elevation: 950ft
     Elevation gain: 1420ft
     Summit elevation: 2370ft
     Roundtrip: 6miles 4hrs 40mins (with some little side excursions to go off trail and down to the water, and a short snack break at the top)
Eagle Mountain hike: (highest point in MN)
     Trailhead elevation: 1751ft
     Elevation gain: 550 ft
     Summit elevation: 2301 ft
     Roundtrip: 3.5miles ?time

Family

This week, Coltin's family came in for a visit. His mom, 2 sisters and one of their boyfriends came out on a roadtrip to stay for the week. So now, there are 13 people in the house!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  We had to put all of the kids' toys in the storage area, deep clean the boys' room and put all of the kids in there. Then we deep cleaned the girls' room so that the visiting family could camp out in there. Then we deep cleaned the rest of the house too, just because it needed it.

Anyway, if I thought that the house got dirty really fast before.... I had no idea what I was talking about!!!! I was out of the house all day yesterday, came home for dinner and the house was trashed! This morning, I went to the gym, and when I came home, everyone was gone sight-seeing, so Joe, Kara and I picked up the majority of the mess.

Weekend Getaway

So over the weekend, something big DID happen! Kara, Coltin and I went out to Spokane for the whole weekend. We caravaned it out there with about 30 of our friends to go to a weekend long Leadership Conference.  There were going to be so many big name speakers, but definitely the most note-worthy was John C Maxwell! He is a former minister who is now the number 1 author on leadership books in Barnes and Noble and in the New York Times.  He speaks about leadership to Microsoft, Amazon, the United Nations, and he's mentored 4 out of the last 5 presidents (not the current one).

Some small things that make the time fly

There haven't been any really big things going on here lately. Everyone has been getting sick with a 24hr bug, and then a coughing, sore throat, fever/headache. Kara just got me sick with that, but I am hopeful that it will go by fairly quickly. Last week, on april 17, was Alyssa's 5th birthday! So we celebrated that and it was very fun. She wanted to make sugar cookies with Kara's friend Kody, so in the morning at 7am, when Kody's husband Justin came upstairs to leave for work, she was waiting for him at the top of the stairs to ask if Kody was awake yet and if they could start making cookies, LOL!

Finally, a new adventure!

I took Joe to his acupuncture appointment today in Freemont, Seattle. Lately, Joe has decided to go from gluten-free/vegetarian, to gluten-free/vegan. So, it's been interesting to say the least to be around him a lot, since he can't eat hardly anything in a normal restaurant. Well, Freemont is like hippy central and many of the bars/restaurants and most of the cafes offer gluten-free/vegan alternatives, if not being totally vegan. Anyway, Joe's acupuncturist recommended a cafe to us and we decided to check it out. It's such a beautiful area, so we were just walking around, me in heels. I was impressed, because this cafe was entirely gluten-free and vegan, and we had delicious personal pizzas, and paninis, and we tried to fantastic muffins! They were very, very good! I never even gave a thought to attempting a vegetarian (much less vegan) lifestyle, but given these recipes (and some extra money) I would totally do it! Knowing how great it is for your body, I would like to be able to do it. While we were there, we were talking to some of the people and mentioned that we were still new to the Seattle area and hadn't seen enough of the sights. They told us that just a couple blocks over was one of the biggest tourist spots in the Freemont neighborhood; the Freemont Troll! There is a giant cement troll that was crafted underneath the Freemont ave bridge and he's actually crushing a real VW Beetle! Down the street a block are the wire creations of the 3 Billy Goats Gruff. It was a fun little excursion. (although, you should see the hills that I had to hike up 3 blocks in 3 inch heels!)

Update on Nothing

Wow, it's been so long since I posted anything on here. Sorry world. Although, it's kind of hard to think about posting something new when absolutely nothing interesting is happening. :( Since starting Hot Yoga, I had gone four times. After the fourth time, the next morning I woke up around 4am and felt very sick. I laid in bed trying not to have to throw up... Around 6am, I had to run to the bathroom :( After that, I was full-blown sick for 5 days! I was dizzy, naseous, had severe and constant diarrhea (i know you wanted to know that!) I couldn't eat anything, and yet I kept going to the bathroom. For 5 days, I felt like I was on the verge of throwing up all the time. I slept almost all of the time, and my back muscles cramped up so bad, that it made me cry. I still remember when my back muscles started loosening up. Kara and Coco and I were at Wed evening church service, and I just kinda tried to flex my back or crack it, and it snapped really loud and kinda painfully. All the people nearby me looked over and all I did was smile and sigh in a completely happy, contented way :) It was such relief! Just a few days after I finally felt better from that, I got a cold. It started really slowly with just severe allergy symptoms, and it became a full blown cold a few days later. I finally feel a lot better from that, even tho I still have some nasal congestion that is giving me some problems. Hopefully, I'm getting used to all of the weird new bacterias in the area and will be more healthy from here on out, cuz this has been quite irritating and not much fun :( I've still been applying for jobs during this time too, but not to much avail. Even tho I think I send a really good resume and enthusiastic cover letter, I just haven't been getting any replies. It's so discouraging. I finally got a couple responses back from some companies that aren't science related, and wouldn't be my first choice, but that would at least offer me a chance to get out, and have a job. One of them would be working directly for Epic, which is the computer system that Park Nicollet switched to during the last year that I was working there! Epic is a very big company and would be great to work for. They emailed me friday evening, so I will call them Monday and try to set up an interview. Wish me luck! I've also been babysitting for Kara and Coltin a lot :) Kara keeps track of all of the times that i've watched them, and she still says that she will pay me for my time, but i keep telling her that it's not really necessary, since I'm staying here rent-free. I've been on the website Meetup, trying to get into contact with some new people and make some new friends, but I just get nervous at the idea of going to a function where I won't know anyone at all. Especially since one of the groups is a Happy Hour group- I would feel weird going to a bar by myself to meet people.

Hot experience!

There is yoga studio down the street that only offers Hot Yoga classes. They have stretching/detox Hatha yoga classes that are either 60 or 90 minutes, and they offer 60 or 90 minute Power Yoga classes. Joe is very into yoga, and he's been harrassing me to go with him for quite a while. So finally, I found out that they were having this special that for new customers, you can pay just $7.00 and get access to 7 classes within 30 days! Sweet! So yesterday we went. I was nervous, but, whatever. We got there a little early so that I could sign up, and then we got settled in the room. It was 105degrees in there!!! After a few minutes of just sitting and very light stretching, I was already sweating. Well anyway, it starts and it is actually a very simple, slow-paced class, but some of the stretches themselves are a little taxing, and with the heat it is pretty intense! I was dripping all over the place. I had brought my own matt, and Joe had told me ahead of time to bring 2 towels, one to put on the mat and another to wipe off with. It was good advise! There was one pose (i think it was the camel pose) that made me pretty dizzy for a second, which they said can happen, and they say to just remember to breathe thru your nose not your mouth, and if you need a break, to just lay down on your mat until you feel better. But it passes quickly enough that I didn't need to lay down. Then there was a standing pose where you just bend backwards and try to look towards the back wall- apparently I am not at all flexible that way! I could hardly bend backwards at all! I kinda giggled at myself and the instructor was right there, and she quietly said to me "that's fine". I like it when people quietly reassure me like that :) Oh, ok, one last thing; we did this pose where you lay on your tummy, with your arms by your side. Then you are supposed to put your arms and hands under your body with your palms down (very uncomfortable) and then you put your mouth on the mat (this is why you want to bring your own and/or a towel to put on it), and then with your back muscles, lift up your legs as high as you can. So my legs go up about 2 feet, and i glance over, and Joe has his legs up and over his head so that they are touching the ground in front of his face!!!! Ugh, that was a little crazy, but most of the people in the class were more like me :) I was definitely soaking wet at the end of the class, but at least i didn't feel naseous or extremely tired. I actually like it a lot. We are definitely gonna go again! Joe really wants us to do the Power Yoga class, but I told him i wanna practice with the Hatha classes a few more times first :)

Thor!

So, one of the kids got a talking Thor doll, and it says several different phrases from the movie. They really like it and keep playing with it a lot. Unfortunately, there is one phrase, that just makes me think dirty and giggle, LOL!

"I AM THOR!!!" "Feel the might of my Hammer!!"

baby sitting :)

So, last night and tonight Kara and Coltin asked me to babysit while they go show a plan for their business. The kids are super easy to watch, so I don't mind at all doing it. Last night, I couldn't get Jada (the youngest at 6 months old) to go to sleep. So she ended up just sitting up in my lap while I watched Downton Abbey on Netflix. She finally fell asleep just before 11pm and then Kara and Coltin got home at 11:30. She was out, so at least she didn't wake up. Today, since I knew I would be watching the kids again, I knew that I needed to get out of the house and away from everyone for a while. Luckily, Joe (kara's brother) was thinking exactly the same thing and called me to see if I wanted to go out and get coffee and hang out. Thank goodness! So I picked him up and hung out with Coco for 20 minutes while Joe primped and made himself beautiful :) We went to get coffee and he started talking about everything that is going on in his life (or rather not going on, since like me, Joe is currently unemployed), and his relationship. I love Joe like a little brother, so I feel that everything in his life is not perfect. I just want him to be happy so bad! Anyway, we ended up going to the mall nearby and just walking around browsing a whole bunch of stores and talking about everything for several hours. It was nice, but neither of us wanted to go back home by the time we were done walking around the mall, so I suggested that we go to this dive-looking bar just down the street from Kara's house. It was pretty sweet. Bigger than it looks from the outside, and all of the cushions on the stools are all ripped. The locals were obviously regulars, but they were very friendly as they each gave me their particular opinions on the local brews. :) When we finished our drinks, we came back to Kara's and and I ended up in a tickling match with Mira and Alyssa while Caiden and I also wrestled. He'll be dangerous when he gets bigger, but for now, he is still light enough that at the very least, I can just pick him up and toss him away from me onto the couch to get away. As Kara and Coltin and their friends were leaving to go to their plan, I surrendered myself to Mira for a make-over. I got more and more scared as she started taking even the lip gloss and spreading it around my face. But she was working so hard and was really trying to make it look nice. As she worked, Alyssa did her own makeup and then it was my turn to do Mira's makeup. As I was doing hers, Vincent decided that he really wanted in on the fun! Now, normally I would not have encouraged him, because I know that Coltin really does not like it when his boys show any interest in anything "girly", because he doesn't want them to think it's okay, because I think he is terrified of them becoming gay. (There are several gay people in both Kara and Coltin's families, so I think it is something that he constantly worries about.) Anyway, I wanted to share the pics with you, since they are simply crazy!

Sunday

After a late night of babysitting for Coco's little girl last night, Joe and Adam and I stayed up late watching a few movies :) I was still able to wake myself up early sunday morning and make it to a Spin class at the gym and shower and get home in time to go to church with Kara, Coltin and all of the kids. My initial plan had been to go back home and take a nap while everyone was out of the house; but that's not how things go around here :) So after we got back, Kara's friends who rent the lower level of their house, decided to make lasagna for everyone, so Kara and I decided to take the time and do our nails. I really like how mine look, I think they are pretty awesome! After that, I snuck off to my room and watched a movie, and by the time it was over, it was dark in the house and everyone had sort of disappeared without me even realizing it. But within about an hour, more people turned up (of course). We made popcorn and some of us drank some wine (yes, i was a part of that!), and then as they were all settling in to play some card games, I holed up in my room again, for some Netflixing. It's not that i didn't want to be social, it was just that the people who are here, are all family and close friends of Kara and Coltin's friends Justin and Kody (the couple who live in the lower level). I felt like they were all over to hang out with each other and catch up, and me being there would be odd. Tomorrow is monday, and several of the kids are back to school (after them having all of last week off), so it will be pretty quiet around here. :)

illness, and boredom

So, a few days ago, Kara's oldest kid, Coltin, had a cough and watery eyes. Alright, no biggie, right? NOT RIGHT! Now 2 of the other kids have a cough, headache, bloody noses, and seriously watery eyes! What the heck is this??? I'm washing my hands every 20 minutes and loading up on echinacea. Whatever it is, they look terrible and I do NOT want it! Other than that, things are going pretty good :) I'm not terribly homesick. Of course I miss my friends and my family a lot. But I'm doing alright. I keep sending out my resume to these large science companies, but haven't heard anything back from them yet. Tara, you had excellent advise, and I promise I will follow-up with those companies tomorrow! For whatever reason, I find it very easy to put off calling them and asking if they have received my resume, and letting them know that I'm very interested in working for them (seriously, working at any of these companies would be awesome!) I know that I need to do it, but it is hard to find some time to make any personal phone calls without the kids making tons of noise in the background, especiall since all of the kids have this whole week off of school. And then when I do find some extra time, I want to call friends or family to chat or catch up, not make business calls. Ugh, I promise myself and all of you that I WILL do it tomorrow. It is really hard to think about being in a different time zone, too. The worst is that in order to use free evening minutes, I need to wait for 9pm, but that's 11pm at home, and midnight if I want to talk to Mary in florida! I will have to make sure that I keep track of the minutes being used so that we don't go over. I'm still exercising at least once a day, and twice a day several days a week. But as usual, my body doesn't have any interest in losing weight! It's so stupid. I did a genetic test of my body thru my Amway business a year or two ago, and one of the things it said is that in order for my body to lose weight, I need to be doing multiple sessions of high-intensity exercise a week. One of Kara's friends out here has been doing Insanity. I'm thinking that I should start inviting myself to workout with her. Maybe that would help. Besides that, I've become familiar with the neighborhood I'm living in, so I no longer need to use my GPS to find things :-) And I've been working on including myself with Kara and Coltin and the people that they hang out with, so that I am more comfortable hanging out with them. It's not the same as making my own friends, but at least it's something. I really need to start talking to people so that I can meet people. But as I'm sure all of you know; It's really hard to make friends as an adult! I've been thinking of trying to find some sort of group on craigslist to join, but am a little leary of that. If any of you have any suggestions as far as meeting people, or finding a group to hang out with, let me know. Oh, and lastly, Washington drivers are pretty darn polite and laid back :) Mary, if you read this, you GOTTA come out here sometime just to compare drivers in WA and FL! They all follow the speed limit, and totally let you merge in front of them if you put your blinker on. It is so funny. Alright, so, hopefully I'll get something a lot more interesting to write soon, but if any of you are on skype, go ahead and find me (see below) and we can video chat. Also, if any of you are interested in checking out any of the products I sell on my website, I am running a 10% off promotion of any nutrilite or XS products for the rest of the month! Text or call or email or facebook me if you have any questions. My favorite are the meal replacement shakes and bars, and the concentrated fruits and vegetable pills (they also have those in the liquid form that you squirt into your water, but I already do that with the joint replacement thingys, so i just take the pills) Hope you are all well! Love, Katie Skype: klhen12 My Store: www.amway.com/katiehenrikson

Staying busy and getting lost

So, I know all of you will understand this, but it sounds weird. I have been staying sooo busy, but haven't really been doing anything! It's just that will all of the commotion that goes on here at Coltin and Kara's house all day, every day, I feel like most of the time i'm very busy. Everyone here exercises pretty much daily, and i have invited myself to tag along with them all of the time :) So Kara and her friends Kody and Kelsey do a dancing video at home with Shawn T, and Coco, Devon (coco's boyfriend) and Coltin go to LA Fitness, so I've been exercising pretty much twice a day. I really like this, and even tho I really want to find a job, I will be sad to have to cut back on the exercising, it's been fun! Last night, Coco and I helped Coltin, Caiden, and Mira write all of their valentines to their classmates. It was sooo fun, and brought up some funny memories that we shared :) Anyway, today was Valentines Day. Obviously, I didn't really have any plans, so when Kara's sister, Coco, called and asked if I would go with her to the mall, I was all over it. We just stopped in at a couple of stores and she bought a few things, and then i was going to bring her home. I have learned the way between her house and Kara's by now, but Kara had called and asked me to stop at the liquor store to pick something up. Well, when i was leaving the parking lot, somehow i got all turned around and went 4 miles down the wrong road, in the wrong direction before i realized it!!! And the roads are set up so skrewy in Renton, that there is no direct route to anything! In order to get anywhere, you have to go pretty much in a huge circle and take lots of turns. It's messed up, but eventually, I made it home :)

formula

ok, babies are sooo cute, and when they are clean they are adorable and smell great! But formula smells gross, and soy formula smells even more disgusting than the regular stuff!!! And then you have spit up, bleh!!! How did i get on this topic? Tonight, Kara is away doing an Artistry party and won't be back until midnight, and Coltin is off at work for the overnight shift. Kara's sister, Coco, came over to help me watch the kids, and we watched a movie, sent all of the kids to bed, but baby Jada was not having any part of it! She had two bottles, and stayed up with us until quater to 11pm, drooling and spitting up all over me. In between crying fits, she would just look at us with this intense, big-eyed gaze and laugh at us with her adorable dimple-cheeked face! She's so sweet :)

ahhh, sundays (pt 6)

Here is a pic of mom standing in front of the Pretty Parlor - her cousin, Ann's, boutique. It was a way better little store than i even thought. She takes old clothes that are already kinda cute or interesting, and redesigns them so that they are super cute! There were several things in there that i would have loved to walk out with :) She also allows a couple of local groups to sell their art-clothing there.

ahhh, sundays!! (pt 5)

When we went on the boat tour of Union Lake and the Puget sound, we saw the famous floating house on Union Lake that was used for many of the scenes in Sleepless in Seattle (which i think i will definitely need to watch again sometime).

I was also able to snap this picture of the Seattle skyline with the Space Needle and Pier 70 (i was gonna get Pier 69 in the pic, but it wasn't labeled and was just an ugly little pier)

ahhh, sundays!! (pt4)

This is the Infamous "Gum Wall" located next to the Pikes Place Market. I don't understand it, but they leave it alone and don't clean it up.

ahhh, sundays! (pt 3)

Here is the view from the top of the Space Needle. We are looking inland, and in the distance you can just make out Mt Ranier, which is a good 70 miles away i think! It was a beautiful, sunny day. So you can imaging that being able to see that mountain is still pretty cool!

Here is Pikes Place! It was pretty fun to watch. They shout out the best catches of the day, hollar and toss fish and other sea creatures around. They also had some free samples available and were extremely friendly and fun.

ahhh, sundays!!! (pt2)

I think this was Snoqualmie Pass. The 2nd biggest/steepest, but definitely the most curvy.

ahhh, sundays! (pt1)

What a nice calm day!

This was MN sending me off in style! It was such beautiful scenery!

Here's how packed my car was! We actually had a few inches of space inside, but i had everything i needed :)

We made it!!!

Wow, i can't believe it's been 6 days since i last updated on here! Everything has been so busy and crazy, that i just haven't had any time to get on the internet for anything other than just a quick post on facebook. So, to update.... My mom and i finally made it out to my friend's house in Renton (a suburb of Seattle) on Tues afternoon. We stopped for a third night at another Super 8 on monday night. I wasn't really tired and could have pushed straight thru, but we would have gotten there at 3am and i just didn't want that to be my reception. :) Anyway, we got there and it was just Coltin, Kara, Coltin II, Alyssa, and Jada at home (i know, just 5 of them right? LOL). So we unpacked my car right away and since it was 58 degrees and sunny and just gorgeous, my mom and i decided that we would head out to downtown Seattle and go up to the top of the Space Needle. It was beautiful up there! So sunny and such a great view, but it was very windy. Did you know that the observation deck does not rotate? Only the level that the restaurant is on rotates, and that is just below the observation deck. After we did that, we went down to the street along the waterfront and looked at some of the shops and had dinner at a restaurant. We sampled some local beer and had this FANTASTIC appetizer. Then we found our way to the REI flagship store and checked that out; I had heard so many people tell me that the flagship store was so awesome! Finally we went back to Kara and Coltin's house and saw the rest of the family :) We hung out for a while and then went to sleep. :) Surprisingly, my mom and i both found it very easy to sleep late here (even with babies crying and 5 other kids running around or getting ready for school). But we did eventually get up and get out on Wed. We decided to go out and check out Pikes Place Fish Market. It was super fun! If parking wasn't so expensive, and if the driving in Seattle wasn't so terrible, I'd go down there to hang out every day! We also went to the International District and China Town. It wasn't anything special, but i ordered us some chinese food to take home. Thursday was a really great day. Mom slept in until almost 11am and then we went on a boat cruise to tour Union Lake, and thru the locks and dam, and then down Puget Sound to the Harbor in downtown Seattle. It was 2.5 hrs and was narrated by this nice girl who moved to Seattle from the east coast last year in February. A lot of the tour was about the history of Seattle, or the buildings/neighborhoods that we passed by as the tour went along. It was very interesting. After that, we made our way up to Capitol Hill and found the shop that my mom's cousin Annie owns. We walked in the store and right away saw my great-aunt Barb. She was so excited to see that we showed up! It was great to see her again. She was always so nice and interesting to talk to the few times i've met her. I was introduced to Annie and we spent the next 2 hours catching up and chatting about the store and all of Annie's beautiful clothing and the artistic alterations she makes. It was so nice. And Barb gave me her phone number and Annie told me to stop in or call anytime that I needed advise. It was a great idea to meet up. Mom and I spent all day on friday shopping and organizing my things in my new room. And then all of us went out for dinner and when we got home, Kara, Coltin, Mom and I stayed up late talking and drinking yummy Arbor Mist! I had to bring my mom to the airport early saturday morning. It was really hard to have her leave. But she told me to be strong and have fun :) While she was here, it was like a vacation. I'm really glad she was able to stay for a few days. I'm not sure that i would have had the confidence or even desire to go out and see so much of the touristy things that we did. I am still really nervous about this whole thing (sometimes it's most prevalent when the baby is crying and all the other kids are talking loudly over each other trying to get my attention and Kara and Coltin are both busy with something else... I just feel like i'm swimming in chaos). I think i will have to start retreating to my bedroom area once in a while to stay sane :) I think i could adapt, and i think i could kind of like living here with everyone- as long as i have a job and am not maybe around ALL day :) Love you Kara!!!! and i love your kids too :) and i know you will understand exactly what i mean. It's late, and i'm pretty tired, so i'm gonna go to bed, but i will upload some pics in the morning.