Tuesday, June 9, 2009

Mount St Helens











We had a fun visit last Sunday to Mount St Helens. This was our first official visit to the area and there was so much to see. We stopped off at a few of the odd little museums on the side of the road, like the bigfoot one.. It also had an A frame that was covered in the initial mud flow that was cool. Our favorite place was the forest museum! Cool playground with cement volcano for the kids and amazing views of the remaining mud flats. The museum itself was quite immpressive as it had larger then life exhibits with reinacted rubble and tree planters. There was a cool discovery room that had every kind of fur, fungus, petrified, fossilized, you name its. Jack kept remarking that he actually petted a black bear! Yup a whole bear pelt was there. I was secretely in heavan as I rummaged through the forestry books and botany samples.
As we made our way to the view point we realized the Helens was shrouded in a thick cloud cover so we decided to stop off for a short hike at the newly made, from the last eruption, Coldwater lake. It was a beautiful habitat of wildflowers, lupine, and lake front. Our first impression was getting to watch a beaver ten feet away from us swim in the bright blue water and climb on logs. It was incredible! There were swallows, owls, and plenty of other critters. It was so pleasently quiet, fragrent, and peaceful that I wanted to sit there all day. Its a place we want to come back to soon.

Zoo too!






We got to spend a whole day running around the zoo with our best buddies!
The kids had a blast... and the mamas too! We love those guys!

Saturday, May 30, 2009

Bandana love!


Jack and I found bandanna's for a dollar at the fabric store and he immediately became a bandit of the west...wearing it around his mouth. As all bandits know.....you rock a different style in the grocery store!

Memorial Day!









We spend Memorial Day this year with our dear friends. The Paxtons had us over for a wonderful bbq, play time, and even swimming bounce house fun. It was a gorgeous day and we were in great company.

Back to the zoo!






We had a fun day at the zoo with Nana and took advantage of the most gorgeous 80 degree day. We were treated to an up close encounter with some gorgeous birds of prey and the kids loved it!

Monday, May 11, 2009

Mother's Day Hike











We had a great day hike at Wahkeena falls. The trail is called the Fairy Falls trail. It is considered a moderate trail and is basically series of steep switch backs for a mile! The kids were super champs and made it to the top! We were treated to dozens of different wild flowers, ginormous banana slugs, a sprawling view, and spray from the falls. It was a great way to spend mother's day and an even better way to overcome any trials of the heart.

Author's Tea






Bijou's class hosts an "Author's Tea" once a month to allow students to read their stories that they have written and typed to friends and family. I was so excited to get to go and hear Bijou read hers. She was inspired by poor Jimmy's recent accident and had written a clever and wonderful story which I will post below.
My heart was bursting with pride as she fearlessly read her story in a beautifully loud voice. My Biji love!



Once upon a time there was a pirate named Jimmy. He was a peg legged puppy. He was brown with brown eyes and floppy ears. He sailed on his doggie bone ship. He searched many years for his treasure. The treasure was dog biscuits. Sometimes when peg leg Jimmy got angry he would say “aruff!”

Jimmy’s best friend was named Bird. He was a parrot. He was green and his head was yellow. One day they found an island. It was called pirate Puppy Island. Then Jimmy said “land arff!” Then they got off the boat. They dug for two months. Then they finally found the treasure chest. They tried to open it but it didn’t open. Then they saw a keyhole. They needed to find the key. One day on the nineteenth of May he found a key chain with one thousand keys. They tried 700 keys then they fell asleep. The next morning peg leg Jimmy tried 300 more and the last one was the right one!

He opened the chest and started eating the dog biscuits. When he ate them all he was very full. So he went back on his doggie bone ship and sailed away back home. The end.