A Day at the Beach

We spent a fantastic day today out on the coast with the Brines family. It was 75 degrees, sunny blue skies, and relaxing. A good start to the weekend!
Carole braved the VERY cold Pacific to get a good shot of all the starfish!


We set up a tent on the beach and had a picnic, watching the waves roll in and people on boogie boards bite it.


Kadyn was a big fan of sand, walking in it, crawling in it, eating it...

Tulip Fields

This weekend we went to the Wooden Shoe Tulip Festival south of Portland. It was a fun day, although it could have been a little warmer. The tulips think so, too, they are very late in their blooming, you can tell from the fields that they are still waiting for a lot of them to show some color. It was not quite as spectacular as the Skagit Valley tulip farms near Bellingham, the sheer numbers there are incredible, but they had some beautiful varieties. Kadyn enjoyed getting out of her stroller and seeing things up close.As you can tell by looking at Brandon it was a bit chilly. He has been putting on some weight, but apparently not enough insulation yet!
We thought this was a cute picture, and apparently so did a lot of people because random people started taking pics of her! A little weird to say the least.
I really don't know how to explain this one...

Ape Caves

Today was absolutely gorgeous! So we decided to go underground :) We went up to the base of Mt. St. Helens and hiked into some lava tubes called Ape Caves. There are no apes there. It was pretty cool, and dark, and felt great to head back out into the sun and 65 degree weather!
Dad and I on the hike in, it is a little longer than in the summer because they don't plow all the way to the trailhead. Also, it is hard to tell because we are on a well-packed trail, but there is about 4 feet of snow all around us!


The entrance to the cave: also a little more complicated by the snow, in summer it is a staircase instead of a snowslide!


The required pic by the sign!


Proof that we made it all the way to the end of the cave (about 3/4 of a mile each way.)


Back into the light!

Then a relaxing lunch in the sun. It felt great!

Dad Seli's Visit

Although Mom had to stay longer than expected in North Carolina with her parents my Dad went ahead and made the planned trip to visit. We have had a fun weekend so far of hiking and biking, some of us farther than others! Friday we waited for the weather to clear a bit, and Dad got to experience the dog park. Then we headed out for a bike ride, Dad did a 25 mile loop, and stayed dry the whole time, Brandon and I rode up the last 5 miles of the loop with the intention of meeting Dad and riding back to the car together, but we rode in the rain the whole five miles so we didn't wait for Dad, just went back to get warm in the car!

Saturday we went for a nice hike with Jon, Briana, Kadyn, and Briana's Mom Terri (who rode over with Dad.) From there Dad and Brandon rode home and Carole and Smokey drove!

Visiting the Wagners

Brandon had agreed to help out at Lutherwood Oregon with some computer stuff, so we went and spent the weekend with the Wagner clan. Since we both had Friday off we took the long way and drove down the Pacific Coast highway. Unfortunately it was a very foggy and wet day, but we still had a good drive and saw some great surf.On the way from the coast to Lutherwood the Navigation system led us astray, we were quite literally on a one-lane road. But we did get to see this awesome sunset and eventually made it, so I guess it was OK!

Saturday we took a beautiful hike and did some playing on the Wii. Now we are home and ready to face another week! Look! We finally filled up our car!

Oh, The Pacific Northwest

Today we decided to go to an area by the river in Portland, just out of the city, that someone had told Brandon was a great off-leash area. We hiked for about an hour, and spent some time on the beach, Smokey got to swim for the first time since we left Bellingham. We even got to see a little sun, but then the real weather of the day decided to come along and we ended up soaked! It was quite the adventure, Smokey didn't seem to mind, but when the water started running down my legs into my shoes because my pants couldn't absorb any more rain I was a little over it!
P.S. That is not snot running off my nose...it is rain!

Happy (Early) St. Patrick's Day!

Guess what??? We're going to Ireland!!! We just found a great deal and went ahead and purchased our tickets to join John and Pam and Cailyn in a trip to London and Ireland. Part of the trip will include seeing John's sister and her newly expanded family, as Cailyn will have a new cousin by then. The details are still up in the air but in the middle of July we'll be crossing the Atlantic! We are so excited, finally a "honeymoon."
London
Ireland from space :)

Japanese Gardens

On Monday the Portland Japanese Gardens had a free entry day so Briana, Jon, Kadyn and I went to check them out. (Brandon had to work.) It was very busy, but still beautiful. Jon and Brandon also baby-proofed the house over the weekend, because Kadyn is scooting like crazy. At least Brandon will know what he is doing if we have to do our house someday!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Well, we spent a good chunk of our day with a dog trainer, trying to save Smokey and Carole's relationship :) But afterwards Brandon used his valentine's gifts to cook dinner! That's right, cook! He got a cast iron wok and a couple of cookbooks, so after a trip to the grocery store he whipped up Plum Ginger Chicken on Chinese noodles. Delicious and beautiful.
(My evil plot to make him the family cook is working!)

Life in Vancouver

OK, we forgot to post last weekend's adventure, so we thought we'd do it this week. We TRIED to go on a hike, really. It was a gorgeous day, Carole had seen signs for some waterfalls near where she'd been working, and done some research. You could start at one waterfall and then hike along the creek/river up to another set, it was about 2 miles one way. We packed a lunch, packed the dog, brought the cameras. And the first falls were beautiful, we sat in the sun, took pictures, and then tried to hike. Only we couldn't find the trail! Seriously, we could NOT figure out where to go to get to the next falls. We took one trail but it just looped back to the parking lot. So, we drove to the next falls, and from there we could see people hiking, on the other side of the river, but we still couldn't figure out how to get there. So we ate our lunch on cold, wet rocks, took some more pictures and drove home to go to the dog park. Maybe we really are city people!
The first falls from below


The first falls from up above


At the second falls what was really cool were the rocks...with all these pools from higher water flow. They were smooth and crazy shapes. Very cool, but hard to photograph.
Now that we have two cameras we take a lot of pictures of each other taking pictures!

Seeing Portland

Our friend Nichol came to visit for a few days, unfortunately it turned out Brandon was out of town most of that time. But she and I spent an evening in Portland, walking around downtown, figuring out how to pay for parking and going to a fun restaurant called Montage. They specialize in Mac-n-cheese (all different flavors) and then bring you your leftovers in a tin-foil creation. You can't tell but mine is a cat and hers is a squirrel. We were a little disappointed we didn't get a 4 ft. tall giraffe like the table next to us!