The Proberts

Playing Catch Up

admin — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 02:35:52 +0000

In Wynter’s Words:

I liked meeting the goat Anna in Oklahoma. And it lives at my Aunt Erin’s house. One’s name is Bella and one’s name is Anna. Anna is the nice goat and Bella is the mean goat. My pappa lives in Oklahoma too and I got to see him play the drums. It was a very special night. And Auntie Amie lives in Oklahoma too and Aunt Amie played with me. And then we went to Kansas to see Naynay my Grandma. And Naynay took me shopping so much and I liked it. And we went swimming with Naynay. First we went to a just swimming place then we went to this swimming place that had a loopy thing and there was this part that had a very circley thing (whirlpool) and you almost couldn’t go out and you had to swim very very hard. And one time Mom came to that swimming place and we got to have food there. They had food and candy and everything but they did not have sunscreen or towels. Nothing else besides food, candy and drinks. Then we went and saw Dad in Colorado after all that. We met some new people in Colorado and we went to my Dad’s bike race. And then we went to Yellowstone National Park after Colorado and I met some cool friends. I met some that lived in Park City and I met another nice girl that ridded a two wheeler and she lived in Washington. I learned how to ride a bike in Yellowstone and I ridded a bike a lot with that little girl and she was six. We saw these huge bison and there was a huge field of them and we saw one Grizzly bear with two cubs and we saw one black bear. We also saw a straight horn thing (prong horn). And then we went to Glacier National Park. In Glacier I went to the campground and there was a super steep hill and I fell over and I got a road rash on my right side of my face and it was all bloody. Blood in my mouth and canker sores. My mom heard the scream and she through it was a grown up and then I screamed again and said ‘oh, that’s my daughter’ and she came running and the way my dad was holding me she thought I broke-ed something but I didn’t. It rained, Daddy’s friends’ came. And then the next day after my crash we did a six mile ride down to the town. We looked at stores. We also hiked in Glacier. And then we went back to Montana to see my dad’s and my mom’s friend Cameron and Jane and we met a lot of new people. We went swimming at a lake there at the same place, at least. We went on a hike and we saw a Marmot, we saw Big Horn Sheep, and we saw three Mountain Goats. One big mommy, one baby, and one daddy goat. The baby goat stand up a little bit then it sat down and they never ran away. It rained super super super duper hard on the hike. It was cold rain. And I bought this new rain jacket where I am now but at the other campground near here and I bought this tough, tough new rain jacket and I wish I had that on the hike. And just my mom came, and Cameron and Jane and everyone else but not my Dad because he was bike riding. Then we drove to Canada where we are right now. The first place we went in Canada was called Lake Louise. We saw a lake and did this hike and we went up and went up all the way to the tippy top to the tea house. And I stuck my whole foot in the lake. Good thing I had hiking boots and dad bought some water proof stuff to put on our hiking boots. That stuff really did help. And the day we went to go on the train it was really raining and I already had my rain jacket by then and we had to stand under a shade tree. And we bought it on the bike ride, actually. And I brought my little toy duckie with my and my toy duckie was sitting out in the rain. And then we went to Jasper and we went on this hike with d’Huez the dog because they allow dogs. And our whole family came. Even d’Huez the dog. And he liked it because he got to swim in the lake. And that hike was yesterday. Today we did a long bike ride. Two hours on the bike ride today and it was 18.69 miles. I had really fun but it was really bumpy. And my trailer bike wheels were like really lower than my dad’s. We went on a long bike ride and I can’t do long bike rides on my two-wheeler. And at all the National Parks we went to these talks where we can learn things at the campground. I don’t know if you ever heard of that but we learned these things and a ranger told us. A ranger is a grown-up. A junior ranger is a little kid. So, it was a ranger. A big person. I have seven junior ranger badges. Isn’t that a lot? Lake Meade, Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon, Yellowstone and Glacier. And I’ll have eight when I go to Acadia near Me-Me. I miss you guys. Love, Wynter. All done!

Decisions, Decisions, Decisions

admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 18:51:05 +0000

I wish parenting was an exact science but it often feels like a mixture of guessing, observing other parents, and using your gut. One of the things we’ve done with Wynter since she was small was given her choices. We felt pretty confident that this would give her some much needed autonomy within controls that we set. These are simple things like ‘what kind of cereal do you want this morning? Granola or Cheerios?’ or possibly ‘which spoon do you want to use? Princess or Snowflakes?’ Lately when faced with making a decision she becomes completely paralyzed with the process and 30-60 minutes can be wasted with the smallest decision. We’ve seen this coming and have tried several things to combat the time sink our family spirals into. We tried timing decisions. ‘Wynter, you have 5 minutes to decide.’ This always results in an immediate and total meltdown. OK, regroup and try again. ‘Wynter, let me decide for you’. Again, this is a complete disaster because we always make the wrong decision in her eyes. She just says over and over ‘I was going to decide it’s just a hard decision and I don’t know what to do’. She resolved the cereal dilema on her own by choosing to put them all in. Most cereal mornings she has about 3 cereals combined in her bowl. This works for us but unfortunately this isn’t the only time we are faced with decisions in our day. Every time we eat out something has to be chosen from the menu. Each morning a new outfit has to be picked out…. it’s amazing how many decisions one faces during the day. A couple of weeks ago she said she wanted oatmeal for breakfast. One would think I’d rejoice at the decision but my heart sank, the box of oatmeal we have has 4 different flavors in it. I had to make a quick decision on how to proceed so I said ‘OK, I’m not going to look and I’m going to pull a surprise flavor out of the box’. She got really excited and when apples and cinnamon came out she rejoiced. Since we’ve been battling her poor decision making skills for a long time now I knew better than to celebrate my solution…. we’ll have to try it out a while and see if ’surprise choice’ becomes a long term solution. So far it’s been successful for ‘what color of vitamin is chosen’, ‘what flavor of hot tea to drink’, and ‘what kind of oatmeal to choose’. Just yesterday morning when she was getting dressed she reached into her under garment drawer and pulled out ’surprise underwear’. She was so excited to have a strawberry shortcake day and I sat back and smiled.

The amazing thing about my interesting little girl is that once a decision of some sort is reached there’s no stopping her in moving forward. She has a level of determination I’ve rarely seen. If she can only decide what she wants to do with her life I have no doubt she will achieve all her goals and do amazing things…. if only she can decide.

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Now on to Wynter’s story. As an explanation, we’ve spent the last two weeks in Park City, UT with only a quick weekend away to Kamas, UT and Evanston, WY for a stage race Chris participated in. The girls bike ride she refers to is a weekly all girls mountain bike ride I’ve done for two weeks in Park City. It’s amazing how many girls come out for the Team Sugar ride that leaves from White Pines.

In Wynter’s Words (Wynter hasn’t taken her camera out once in Park City so there won’t be any of her pictures for this entry)

I had so much fun at golf lessons and yummy art. It was so fun that we got to make stuff with food that we got to eat and we made some stuff with playdoh for decorations. And I still have to work at golf a little when I get my clubs from Lake Tahoe. Me and dad at Father’s Day went fishing down by Park City and that where my yummy art and golf lessons where. It’s so beautiful at Park City and I had my birthday at Park City. We went to daddy’s bike races. He has some on the trip too. He will have some more on the trip. I made some friends in Park City. We are going to go fishing in the evening today with some food we didn’t fish with yesterday night. Yesterday night when we fished, I got the hook that you catch fish with on my hand and it hurt. I’m going to ask Dad when we’re going to do a fire in Park City because last time when we came here Dad didn’t make a fire in Park City. We came here two times on our trip because Mom wanted to do the girls bike ride and I wanted to do a fire with S’mores and graham crackers and chocolate and marshmallows. Sometimes on this trip dad has double ones. One WHOLE graham cracker and two chocolates and two marshmallows. So he almost has like 5 treats on his. And I hope Mom could go fishing with me and Dad one time if she wants to. If she doesn’t and we find a different lake then she can fish there with us. Love, Wynter

Our Nation’s Parks

admin — Mon, 07 Jun 2010 05:15:24 +0000

We’ve now visited 5 National Parks on our trip and have been so impressed with the National Park system. Wynter has completed the Junior Ranger program for her age group at each park as well as had her National Park passport stamped each time. The Junior Ranger program has been fun for the whole family. Each park has a little different set up but we’ve had to attend Ranger talks, create arts and crafts, pick up litter, identify animals, etc. The Ranger talks are surprisingly interesting, extremely educational, and some are even entertaining. The one thing that’s really surprised me is how few Americans are at the parks. We’ve been meeting people from all over the world but it appears that our Nation’s Parks are more of a destination for visitors from other countries. These parks are incredible and I can see why people visiting the US make them a stop on their tour of our country. What I don’t understand is why so few Americans seem to be visiting. If you buy an annual family pass the cost of entry is reasonable (we spent about $80 and we get unlimited visits to all the parks for a year), camping there is quite inexpensive and you have easy access to all the sights, and many of the parks now have a shuttle system so you they’ve cut down on a lot of the traffic through the park. This is a call to my fellow Americans to get out and visit a National Park this year. If you’re looking for suggestions on which ones to visit, I’d be happy to share my favorites with you. Whether you like it or not, you’re paying for these parks so go see what your money buys!

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In Wynter’s words and through Wynter’s eyes

I got to go in the dam at Lake Powell. I got to be a Junior Ranger. We could do an art if we did one page of the Junior Ranger book. I made a bracelet and a thing to hang on stuff. The thing to hang on stuff is a picture of Lake Powell. We went inside the dam. We saw this beautiful rock. It was stuck in the dam. It was just so beautiful I couldn’t help it I wish I could have it. It had these beautiful rocks inside the rock. We just hung out and made S’mores. We fed these beautiful horses. I wish I could feed everyone of them but I couldn’t because I was too scared and they weren’t all to the fence so I couldn’t feed them. D’huez about attacked the first one he saw. He thought they were big huge huge huge dogs. But I knew they were big huge huge huge horses because horses are big. We went to Zion and we hiked there and there was horse backing rides but I was too little because they only allowed 7 year olds and above 7 year olds but not below 7 year olds. We went to this museum and there was soap and it was wrapped up in fabric and I wanted to buy one of my favorite smells of the soap they had and then when I was done I asked Mom if she could needle some tights for my baby and her name is bitty baby. And we had a bike ride through Zion. It was my longest bike ride in the whole world. I almost ride 20 miles. 20 miles is almost this long: all the way from my house in lake Tahoe to my grandma’s house. That is how long 20 miles is. And we hadded to have the same bar over and over and over again. And there was some steep ones and I almost fell over but they were fun and I didn’t think about falling off them. The horses hadded to be near the fence to feed them because there’s holes through the fence which is easy. The way to feed the horses is hold the end of the tall tall grass and you feed them and you let go and the chomp it all up. We did some hiking at Bryce and I was Junior Ranger at Bryce. There’s a horse trail but we couldn’t go on it because horses had to go on it and if we wanted to go on it we hadded to ride on the horses because only the horses had to go on it. I picked up that trash. It was so huge. I had to have a glove to pick up it. But dad letted it blow down and it was an accident. We came up to Park City. Dad had a bike race in Salt Lake City but he didn’t win. But I still gave him jelly beans. I told Mom that I would give him a treat if he winned and if he tried his best and I told Dad that ‘did you try your best to win, did you win?’ he said ‘I tried my best’ and I said ‘I told Mom if you tried your best or if you winned I would give him a treat’. And we went to a BBQ. We had bacon, sausage, salad, turkey burgers, and pork. We had this yummy guacamole and chips. The chips were blue. We went to Ryan’s house. Ryan’s house isn’t Brenna and Fiona’s house. It’s one of my dad’s friend’s house. Not Brenna and Fiona’s dad’s house. I’m gonna do golf lessons next week. Tomorrow is the golf lessons. The day after today, the day after Sunday. I am excited to meet new friends while I play golf and while I do the yummy art. The people who’s going to teach us it they bring food and you do it with food but you don’t eat the food off it. I don’t know yet. I miss you and love you. Love, Wynter

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OOPses and WOWs

admin — Sat, 29 May 2010 06:15:24 +0000

Walking through the Valley of Fire

After we got out of the snow in Big Bear Lake, we headed towards the Valley of Fire. We stopped at a casino outside of Boulder City for the night and the next morning we decided I’d do a bike ride in the morning and then Chris would ride to the Valley of Fire and we’d meet him there. I followed a ride from mapmyride (with which I have a love/hate relationship) and although the end result was a good ride I didn’t enjoy the ride on the highway into Henderson, NV. Chris and Wynter visited the Hoover Dam while I was out riding and when I returned Chris set out for his ride. Now, I distinctly remember Chris saying to meet up with him in the Valley of Fire in 5 hours. OOPS! We obviously have some work to do on the communication front because he ended up waiting for us for 2 hours in the desert with no food/water. He was able to beg some water and half an orange off a nice lady who held the stop sign at a construction spot and then he rode around Valley of Fire waiting for us. Luckily for all of us they were having a big of a cold spell there so he didn’t have the extreme summer temps that he would have experienced. Now, this wait would have been shorter if he would have started to ride towards us rather than away from us and down all the side roads (we passed him while he was down a back road waving at us). But we found each other before dark and were able to settle into a great spot at the Atlatl campground in Valley of Fire. Waking up to the gorgeous red rock formations produced a resounding WOW from all of us. Wynter loved climbing on the rocks

around the campground and I enjoyed a great ride up to White Dome in the morning. We’ll definitely be back! From there we headed to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. In the morning, Wynter and I went to the visitor’s center so she could get her stuff for the Junior Ranger program and we got our first glimpse of the canyon. All Wynter could say was WOW, WOW, WOW. And WOW it is! Chris and I have both seen the South Rim in the past and we are so glad we took the recommendation to visit the North Rim. It’s incredible here! Chris decided to ride out to Cape Royal. He threw some bottles into the fridge and told use to bring those out and meet him at precisely 1:3o. I know what you are all thinking; we had another major error in communication, right? Nope, Wynter and I were there at the right time and we even brought him a PB&J! Only we left the bottles of water and fuel in the fridge in the RV. OOPS! Fortunately, I had a full bottle I was able to give him and the PB&J was the right amount of fuel for the trip home and I am working on remembering all the details for his future rides. I might start writing everything down in a little notebook I carry around or something. I knew this trip would come with its challenges for our family but all of us hope the end result makes us a tighter knit unit and I’m more sure than ever that surviving these oopses will do just that!

In Wynter’s Words and Through Wynter’s Eyes

It snowed at Big Bear and then it stopped and it was snowing in the summer and me and Mom didn’t bring our tough jackets and we were cold but we did bring our pants and our shirts. Dad brought his tough jacket but we didn’t. Me and Dad went to the Hoover Dam and we saw this huge huge huge lake and the dam didn’t let us in, only the people who worked there. There was a working parking lot and but not the other people could park there. I saw this huge hole that water could go in. The water had to be big enough to be in the hole. The hold was just so big. I took a picture of the hole but not on the other side. It comes out from one side to the other side. We went to this lake that was so beautiful. I got to feed the fish. There was popcorn on the ground and I picked them up and I fed the fish. I didn’t hop in, I stayed and I threw them but the wind was too tough and the popcorn kept flying away but not in the water. It flew onto the bridge. I been a Junior Ranger at two National Parks. The one at Lake Mead I got to see cactus. I learned to and I’ve been told to take care of animals. If we saw a turtle on the road ask a big Ranger to pick them up but we don’t touch them because they might bite us. You can never drive off the road because if you drive on the dirt the animals in there will get dead. I miss you. I went to the Valley of Fire and I got a cactus stuck in my finger and my foot and when I went inside I realized it was much better. It doesn’t have a cactus because when I put my socks on I didn’t see a cactus. I took pictures of the lizards and Mom took one. The Grand Canyon my Mom and Dad saw a different part but we saw the other part with our whole family. It was so beautiful we wish we could go hiking in there but it was too steep and it was too steep to climb up. I was Junior Ranger at the Grand Canyon. I had to talk about the Condor birds and I helped. My leg was bleeding but I felt much better when I was inside. I been really tough. I wish you guys could come on this trip. If you meet up with me I would be so happy. I cleaned the RV, I feed d’Huez. I feed him everyday. I am having so much fun. Me and my dog are playing. Our whole family loves this trip. We miss you. Love, Wynter

The Big Trip

admin — Sun, 23 May 2010 05:51:47 +0000

Hanging out near the Ocean

After an enjoyable 5th Birthday Party for Wynter and the Robin twins we left Tahoe on May 15th for our 4-6 month RV trip. I didn’t think I could be as stressed as I was right before we left. We packed up the house to vacation rent it while we’re away, finished some projects on the RV (including a 3rd captains chair and 2 new solar panels), and packed up the rig. We went right to the Sacramento area and watched the first stage of the Tour of California. Chris had some friends come ride with him in the Folsom area and Wynter and I went out on my mountain bike and her trailer bike (where we came across a rattle snake). While Chris went to the finish, Wynter and I got to hang out with a dear friend and her new baby. From there we went out to Hwy 1 and boon-docked on the side of the road. Waking up and seeing the Ocean was pretty awesome. Then it was on to Santa Cruz to see more friends, hang out on the Boardwalk, and see another Tour of California finish. The next stop was Modesto so Chris could race in a Crit,

Enjoying the Santa Cruz Boardwalk

we could do a little laundry, and watch another finish. We left Modesto as soon as possible and headed up to Big Bear Lake. What a surprise! Neither of us had ever been here and were shocked at how high it is. We couldn’t imagine leaving after only two nights so we immediately changed some stuff around and extended our trip here. However, had we known a cold front was moving in we might have kept to the original plans. Overall we’re still trying to work the kinks out of traveling and figure out things about our rig. We’re trying to get as much time riding our bikes or running for me as possible. My plan is to update this blog more frequently and give some stories about the trip rather than just a list of what we’ve done. As I decompress this won’t feel like such a chore. Up until now even opening up my laptop feels a bit like work so actually accomplishing something on it hasn’t happened.

In Wynter’s Words and Through Wynter’s Eyes (this is a place where I just type what Wynter says, mistakes and all. I also gave her my point and shoot for the trip so she’s been taking lots of pictures and those will be included.)

Mastering a self portrait

I am having a nice trip. I miss all my friends and my teachers. I miss everyone of you. My tummy hurted when I went on the boat ride but my Mom was there with me and it went slower and slower and then I felt much better. The rides I went on were so much fun. I went on a ride with Daddy and it went backwards and it went frontwards and it was so much fun. I went on racing cars. The rides I had were just so much fun I couldn’t help it. Those rides were just so much fun. I went to see a bike race and I got Jelly Belly’s and they were just so yummy and we bought candy today at the store. This RV trip is just so much fun. I miss everyone in the world. Our whole family misses everyone. I was too little to go on the roller coaster but even though I really wanted to I have to wait until I get bigger and bigger. I sat in the front seat with Dad today and I met new friends and I played with them. I am having some candy tonight. We got a new seat in the RV. Pretty soon I will get to see my cousin at Maine and her name is Lily. Do you remember d’Huez? He is having so much fun. He is playing with me and we got a new frisbee for him and he already chewed it all up at the first time I gave it to him. Today he got to meet the new friends I met. He’s just having so much fun and I got to learn how to play soccer. I got to learn how to play flying ball with them. I hope you like my story. My Mom letted me borrow one of her cameras and the pictures of them are so pretty. I hope when I come back you will like them. Love, Wynter

Driving down the coast

P.S. I saw a rattle snake on the road when we were biking. Mommy was on her mountain bike and I was on my trailer bike. My trailer bike has a basket to put all my food in and my water. I am so glad I have one of those because I am starving so much. On my other bike I don’t have one of those. To get it on my other bike we’ll have to switch it. Mommy and d’Huez was running one day. Me and Mom and d’Huez were running. We had so much fun those days. Since I left I missed you. My Daddy used to ride a mile when he was a little kid. I ran a mile with my Dad one day. None stopping. I hurted a little because we just had dinner and I got there before my Mom. And on the way I putted on my bike helmet and my bike gloves. Dad had no bike shoes and we were going to go biking, no bike helmet, no bike gloves.