Robe Canyon Trail: Saturday August 30

We left in the middle of the afternoon on Saturday of Labor Day weekend, headed for the "Old Robe Canyon Trail" just northeast of the town of Granite Falls, about 50 miles from Seattle. When we got to the trailhead (a blank brick pillar at the edge of a grove of trees) it was raining, but we went ahead. The trail wound through the woods, then started down a steep hill through a series of switchbacks. At the bottom, it passed through almost swampy territory, with some large trees, and even larger-leaved plants. When we reached the river (a fork of the Stillaguamish), it was rocky but calm and relatively wide, with the same kind of wooded plain on the other side. As we followed the trail, we got closer and closer to the river, until we were clambering over rocks along a former gold rush train track cut right into the rocks. You could still see RR ties embedded in the rocks, even though most of it had been obliterated by rockslides. We were hoping to reach the main attraction of the trail--two RR tunnels--but the trail was closed just in sight of the first one. But the weather cleared up and it was sunny on the way back up the hill, and the scenery was gorgeous, and the boys did a great job of walking about 3 miles!

Getting Ready for Kindergarten!

Here are some pictures from this week's meetings at James' new school.
It's called Woodway Elementary School.











Here is a Google Map of the location:

View Larger Map

His teacher is Mrs. Cook, here's the class website.


Here's James with his backpack in front of a mural at school,
and the daily schedule for his class.

He's in afternoon kindergarten, from 12:40-3:10, riding the bus both ways!

Park Video

Here's Braden running and singing at the park. He's singing "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" from Veggie Tales.

At the Park

Here are the boys at the park a few weeks ago.
James wore his glasses the whole time, and climbed some "ladders"
on the playground that he hasn't before!

R-Word Video

As part of the response to the "R-word" respect campaign for people with intellectual challenges, Will Schermerhorn, known for several videos on kids with Down syndrome (his son, Mason, was born in 2000), has created a video montage with the Arc of Northern Virginia. Very moving.

Join the R-word campaign and pledge your support at http://www.r-word.org/. (This is a site hosted by Special Olympics which has been prompted by the use of the r-word in this summer's film TROPIC THUNDER. But the response has galvanized numerous groups and brought wonderful new visibility to the abilities and accomplishments of all kinds of people!

Here's the Video: