Monthly Archives: October 2015

My work week this week has been a little crazy.  Two day shifts, an evening, another day shift followed by three night shifts.  Chad and the kids are doing a work weekend at my parents to get their place put up for winter.  Chad’s parents, aunts and uncles were camping at the beach and let me crash their party which was so good since I am not good at being alone, I haven’t had too much practice and I’m ok with that.   

 We had a coastal storm.  The wind rocked the trailer and the pounding surf made the best white noise.  The waves were memorizing, but of all the good things the company was the best.

Side note…

I did accidently lock them in their trailer and go to work.  The door didn’t unlock from the inside 😳 thank goodness there was family close by to rescue them.  They may not let me have the key to the trailer again, and a few people including me, after I got over feeling bad, got a big belly laugh out of the deal.

Our trip to the Washington state capitol building.  

We arrived into Olympia at lunch time and found this Greek food place just down the street from the capitol.  Loving falafels and wanting  to share that love with our kidlets we opted to eat lunch at The Gyro Spot.  Falafels for Chad and the kids, falafel salad for me.  They were not the same as those we had in Israel but weren’t too bad.  Caleb devoured his, but the girls weren’t as sure about it.    
    We finished lunch and arived at te capitol 15-20 min. before the 1:00pm tour.
 
  A memorial to remember The World War stood out front of the main building.
   Instead of everything in one building the Washington capitol building is designed in 5 separate buildings.  Only one looks like the capitol and it houses the House and Senate.  We learned this on the tour and it explains why the Capitol seemed so small. We learned that the domed roof is the tallest masonry dome in the Western Hemisphere… The third tallest in the world.  I guess most people who make domed buildings use other material than stone or brick.  

    Washington State seal
 All the light fixtures are from Tiffany and co. The largest collection of Tiffany lighting in the world.  They told us that after we learned that the exterior of the building is built with sandstone which seems like an odd building material.  Just when you think they were either going for affordable or local the throw in the expensive and not local but deffinately unique.

  
    
 There are 5 kinds of marble in the building, and the only gold (some capitol buildings have copious amounts) was thread around the seal in the curtains of the ballroom. 

   
    The other thing that made this capitol unique (I think it is he first one we have seen) it has no murals!  All the empty painted plaster walls and no art.  The story is that they could never decide what to paint. They painted one that had a nude in it and eventually decided it wasn’t appropriate and painted over it.
 The tour guide let the kids each sit in the governors chair.

  
   Eve is such a ham… 
    
 A picture of the Capitol when it was first built.

Warning this post is mostly pictures!  We love exploring Lava tubes, Ape Caves is a hike we have done before a little over two years ago.  We loved it so much that we wanted to do it again.  Last time Suzanne was pregnant with Elijah Hadassah was 1+, Cyrus was 2 and Eve was 3.  We had no idea what we were getting into but had been told that the kids could do it no problem.  It was CRAZY! We ended up carrying the little ones the whole way over trying piles of boulders and tight passageways.  This time when the kids were older a ranger did stop us at the top and tell us that this hike is not recommended for children under 10. We decided to do it anyway since they had done it before and are now two years older.  With Elijah being 1+, Hadassah 3, Cyrus 4, Eve 5, Hannah 8, and Caleb 10.  Grandma and Grandpa Sherman, and Uncle Jeremy’s brother Chris joined us with his crew for the lower caves as they are a lot less challenging, but you get to still experience the caves.   

    
    
    
    
    
    
   The lower caves…grandma and grandpa hiked up the trail and met us at the exit of the upper caves.  
    
    
    
    
 
    
 
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   We finished the entire hike around dinner time so before we left we all sat around eating dinner and visiting.  I expected that the kids would crash as soon as the car started moving, but so far I am the only one having trouble staying awake.  

If you live in the area you should make it a point to visit Ape Caves and at least hike the lower segment!  Caves are so fun.

A few of you have asked us over the last three months what our plans are for our next assignment.  I don’t like to say for sure what we are planning until I have a signed contract, but I had been asked by Silverton Health, my home hospital, to come and help them shortly after I signed my Newport contract.  Wanting to help my friends and former work family I gave them first dibs on my next assignment until October 1st.  It was looking like a pretty done deal so we had let several of you in on our non cemented plans.  A week or so ago Silverton manager let me know that with a decrease in their anticipated census meant that they would no longer need my exra hands.  

Although the kids are disappointed to not be home for Christmas we feel like this is a major answer to prayer.  To spend 7 months in Oregon does nothing to meet our trip objectives and although 8 people in 1100 sq ft half time has been great for three months.  An additional three months  full time together would be trying at the least.  

Today we signed a contract with Augusta Health in Fisherville Virginia 2.5 hours out of DC starting 11/9/15.  We are looking forward to being on the east coast the 3,000-4,000 mile, depending on how south we need to go, route across the contiguous states seems a little daunting.