Uno, Dos, Tres, Cuatro . . . We made it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy 4th Birthday, Colton!  We love all the fun, curiosity, and happiness that you bring into our family.  You ARE the "Life of the Party". 

Love you, Little Man.

Home-made Parachute

Cody decided he would put a plastic grocery bag on his back and see if it would work as a parachute.  He started by trying to jump off an electrical box while we were out for a walk.  When we got home, he decided he needed another bag or two and to try it on the tramp instead.

He was almost flying now . . .

For sure if he just added one more bag . . . and one more. . . and just one more . . . 

Then he realized it was actually better as a cushioned landing.  

I watched him out the window for awhile, smiling at how much fun he was having with this new experiment.  This is what pure joy looks like.  I just love this kid!

Skamamish Day 1

Since I've jumped around a little bit, and to clarify for my regular readers and avid followers, this is the continuation of our trip to Oregon/Washington and follows the first post (even though this says "day 1").

So after we left Ontario area, we headed up and across the state of Oregon into the Columbia River Gorge.  I was surprised that besides a brief stint of trees, most of the drive was high desert type terrain.  We kept waiting for the beautiful, lush, green forests we had seen in pictures and always pictured Oregon to be like.  It wasn't until part way into the Gorge that it was what I had imagined it to be like (Russ was thinking more Flaming Gorge, with huge steep cliffs shooting up), but it was absolutely gorgeous!  And the drive along the river was incredible!  Our hotel was actually on the Washington side near a little town called Stevenson and it was the perfect setting.  The hotel was called Skamania Lodge, but for some reason Russ could never remember the name - Skamamish? Skamountain?  Whatever.  It was super nice and thanks to my dad, we got an awesome deal, no way we could have stayed there without it.  So we are extremely grateful.

Onto our first day . . . (well our real first day we checked in, went to the pool for a bit and then went to bed, so that doesn't really count).  We started out with the intent to drive about 40 min away to check out a view of Mt St Helens, but about 15 or 20 miles out we realized we were almost out of gas and there would be nothing when we got out there, and then how would we get back?  So we decided to pull off and attempt one of the many hikes we had passed on our twisty road through the trees.  Falls Creek Trail turned out to be a perfect hike . . .

Cool trees

Cool rocks to climb on (and in)

Cool bridges

And at the end, an AWESOME waterfall!

(Can you see them all the way down there!?)

We had our picnic by the falls before we hiked back down.

It was totally cool.  Gorgeous falls and perfect weather, what more could you ask for?   Super fun hike and the boys did great!   Loved it!

After the hike (well, after Russ hiked halfway back up to get his glasses), we went back to the hotel to go swimming.  We did this pretty much everyday, but I promise you won't have to see swimming pictures in every post.  Just a few. :)

That night after dinner (and an interesting experience involving underwear), we went out to watch the kite boarders on the river.  Apparently the Gorge is the kite-boarding capital of the world.  It looked really fun, but was maybe even more fun to watch.  We had the perfect spot on the dock, because we could see the whole river, but we were behind a little bend just out of the wind.  We had fun seeing them jump, watching them crash, and hoping they didn't run over each other too much.  It was a really good time!

UP NEXT:  Lots of fish, another waterfall, and a new car . . . are you intrigued yet?

Taking Time Out

[Playing catch-up on all my El Salvador adventures]

Yes, I did work my butt off in while I was there.  Most days were up at 5 or 6am and didn't get to bed until 11 or 12 (or later).  There was lots of traveling and walking and trying to stay focused so I could understand everything in Spanish.  But I did get some reprieve on the weekends.  The first Saturday we took the bus 2 hrs away to a cute little town called Suchitoto, which was located on Lake Suchitlan.  It was beautiful!

We ate lunch at a quaint little place called El Gringo (or something like that) and, surprise, it was run by a gringo.  He was a big tall guy from California married to a short little Salvadoran woman.  Nice thing was that you knew you could trust the food.  Best part about that was that we could actually enjoy the yummy smoothies that are so popular there.  And oh were they good.

 

We took a little boat trip out to an island called La Isla Pajarita.  It's this random island that is now protected because there are 14 species of birds that have decided to make their homes there.  They come back the same time every year.  This lake has many islands, but this is the only one with all the birds on it. Weird, huh?

(There are at least four or five different birds above, can you find them?)

The next weekend, I wanted to do something a little more adventurous . . .

ZIPLINING!!  In all my adventures, it's something I've never done and I totally loved it!

This isn't me, but you can see how far it is!  And the view was amazing!

We also took a hike after lunch out to this old volcanic lake.  It was pretty, but not the coolest thing I've ever seen.  The police officers were amused by all our silly picture taking, so we made them take a picture with us too.

We had some great weekend adventures, ate lots of yummy food, and got to see more of the beautiful country of El Salvador.  I loved it!