In addition, his father has faced the challenge of following the 'book' on feeding as Papa has slipped Calder table food since about the time he was six months old. This is one "healthy" kid, and will sit in the high chair, eat all of his baby food and cereal, and then come into the front room and see what Papa is eating and "mooch"--hence his nickname other than "Cheeks MacGee" which is probably a result of his great appetite.
Last week we were On the Road to Renewal (more on that in a minute) and Cheek's mom bought a box of VooDoo Donuts in Portland. Today there was still one cake donut with yellow frosting setting on the counter where it had been since Sunday evening. After his lunch our daughter Erin was taking him to the front room to play, and as they passed the very stale donut, he gave his Mooch "uh, uh" and finger point at the donut. But, his momma picked up the rock hard donut and put it in the trash.
Travel forward a few minutes and Cheeks is playing and walking around and his momma keeps telling him to come back to the front room as he wanders around. The next trip he disappears and mom says, "Calder, come back in here!" A few seconds pass, and here comes Mooch, stale, hard cake donut with yellow frosting in hand -- one bite missing. He had opened the cupboard door, pulled the trash bin out, and retrieved the donut! A donut with new life!
So, let me back up a little here and talk about our family's road trip for New Life a week earlier. Deb had managed to get four rooms at the Lake Quinault Lodge about halfway up the coast of Washington for last Saturday. Now only a family as crazy as the Shaws would take off from Boise on the Road to a lodge for one night and then return to Boise the same weekend. But that is who we are! And I know a lot of it is because she does it for the olde guy!
Our daughter's car is not that great of shape, so they rented a Challenger and took off about midday Friday to plan a stop with Cheek's godmother in Portland, let her see her Godson then head on to the Lodge on Saturday. (He first visited when five months old. Second trip at just under one year old.) Our youngest son and his wife left Friday morning, planning to get a hotel and have a nice dinner together Friday night then go on to the Lodge Saturday. Our oldest son and his family were ready by Friday evening when he got off work so they just rode with us in the Tahoe since Deb was getting off late as well.
Early afternoon we got a frantic text from On the Road with Krieg and Karissa--their radiator had blown up near Hermiston. Erin, Chris and Calder were just clearing Pendleton so we asked them to watch for the red jeep and see if they could help out. Long story short, the jeep was towed to Hermiston and a radiator was ordered, K2 put all their gear in the Challenger and the five of them headed to Madrina's one bedroom apartment for a birthday party and sleepover. The next morning they got VooDoo donuts and upgraded to a full-sized Impala and headed for Centralia, Washington.
There they met us at our daughter-in-law's restaurant where we all (including granddaughter Andi) connected for lunch at the Centralia Steakhouse BBQ and Deli and caught up (renewed) what everyone had been doing. After lunch it was off to Quinault. We arrived there about three p.m. having logged about ten and a half hours of driving to that point. We unloaded and then headed out for Kalaloch another 45 minutes up the road. Arrived at 5p, made reservations for dinner in lodge for 6:30p and then headed down to the beach for the 5:18 sunset.
The cupola at the top of the steps leading down
to the beach where Erin and Chris were married.
We were so blessed to be able to Renew our link with Kalaloch on such a beautiful evening. The sun was just setting, the tide was out so we could walk to the tide pools and there was no wind. We went down there as individual families, took our time to share this special event within our own life pod, and then as the sun settled close to the horizon we came together as one large family, silently sharing this beautiful moment.
Sun setting across the rocks that form the
tidepools where we find starfish and anemones.
We have been able to Renew as a family including the Portland Shaws for the last several years, and only we the Shaw Clan who has been going to Kalaloch since the first visit 66 years ago would even consider driving 24 hours in a weekend to spend an hour on this beach. My maternal grandparents were the first generation to come down here. My parents Nan and Papo came here every summer for years, and as they asked, we distributed their cremains at Trail 2 just South of Kalaloch. When we moved to Boise, and I retired we Renewed the Trek to Kalaloch as an annual event--third generation. Now, we even try to sneak over more than just for a week the end of July. Thank you Deb for the memories each trip brings back to be renewed and for helping me keep this going into the fifth generation.
Lake Quinault from the room. Generation Three
Lake Quinault Lodge
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