Punchbowl Falls

Yesterday was awesome! Kyle was driving home from school for his off-semester and decided to come visit us for 2 days on his way. While he was in town, we went and hiked Punchbowl Falls. When William realized his days off overlapped when Kyle would be here hiking, he grabbed Scott and drove the 3 hours back down, just 3 days after he'd left here! We couldn't go to Punchbowl without bringing some friends, so we grabbed Quinlan, Gannon and Dierden to tag along.  

As we pulled up to get the envelope to leave our money at the trail head, Sean drove the tire a little  too close to the rocky curb and it popped our brand new (less than a month old) tire. Fortunately  we had a spare, and fortunately, we had a half hour to kill before Kyle got there. (He was driving from Heather's house in La Grande.)  We took advantage of the opportunity and taught Quinlan, Gannon, and Scott how to change a tire.

Shortly after Kyle arrived, we were on our way! Punchbowl Falls is my favorite hike I've done in Oregon. It is so beautiful, and it is long enough that it feels like a hike, but short enough that the kids can do it! Everett loved riding on Uncle Kyle's back.

Part of the crew...

Brayden and Asher had a lot of fun exploring along the path

Punchbowl Falls

Gannon, Dierden, and Quinlan

Everett loved playing in the rocks. He was in heaven!

A cool thing about Punchbowl Falls, is there is an incredible place to go cliff jumping. Sean and William were the only ones brave enough to do it, but we all were very entertained watching them!

Will had never been cliff jumping before. In his words "That was TERRIFYING!" But... he did it 3 times :)

Sean loved the *freezing* cold water, and wanted to chill in it before he got back on the trail.

Uncle Scott and Everett!

On our drive home, we stopped by Multnomah Falls, just so Kyle and Scott could get a glimpse!

Horrible picture. At least Kyle looks good!

These pictures are totally unrelated but I loved them, and wanted to post them!

Shelves!

My husband spoils me! When I got home from Washington with the boys, I walked into a clean house and new shelves! We had talked about building shelving both upstairs and downstairs for awhile but hadn't ever gotten around to it. Sean implemented the concepts brilliantly... way better than I could have ever dreamed!

I'm in the process of trying to figure out how to cover them with fabric so you don't see all the stuff in them always, but seriously, are these not incredible?

With 3 boys in one bedroom, it is hard to come up with enough dresser/closet space. We emptied 2 dressers into this new shelving and there is still lots of empty space! I'm going to put fabric on the back so when the blinds are open you don't just see clothes, and I'll put fabric on the front to hide the mess (because let's be honest. It won't always look that organized) but I am so impressed with Sean, and his ability to bring to life ideas that if left up to me, would forever stay only ideas. I think I've said no less than 50 times "I LOVE MY NEW SHELVES!" and I might just say it another 50 times. Who knew that shelves could make a girl so happy? :)

Longboarding

 Uncle Will came to visit us on his day off again. We LOVE having him come visit, and are so grateful that he's willing to make the drive to be here for just 24 hours. It helps that that there is a cute girl here that is drawing his attention but hey, we'll take what we can get!

This time when he came to visit, he brought his long board. We had a lot of fun with it!

Garden Update

I'm sure you can tell how much we just LOVE our garden by the number of times I post about it. I absolutely love having fresh produce, and more than anything, I love the experience for the kids. It is so fun to teach them where our food comes from, and the value of hard work. We are so extremely blessed to be able to have our garden and chickens while living in a townhouse!

Our corn. It shot up while I was gone!

Blueberries! 

Artichokes 

Bell pepper 

and no shortage of zucchini! 

Our strawberry tomato row

 A day's worth of berries

Egg-layin 

My little monkey!

Ears!

Bride's Day!

Natalie is getting married! In October. And instead of a bachelorette party, she had a Bride's Day with all of her sisters, and her Mom. Beforehand, we couldn't decide what we wanted to do, and Dad in jest said "Take the boat out into Lake Union, through the Ballard Locks." We all looked at him and said "YES! That's it!" So, Dad came along to be our Captain/Chauffer/Tour Guide.

We woke up at 4am and launched in Lake Washington in Renton. We cruised through the glassy, smooth, silent water, and it was so fun being the only boat on the water. We went past UW, and into Lake Union, where it was so foggy we couldn't see the Space Needle or Seattle Skyline at all. In fact, if we didn't have electronics on the boat, the trip would have been absolutely impossible.

It was freezing cold, but fortunately we were prepared with blankets and hoodies. We got to the locks a little after 7, and were first in line. We only had to wait a few minutes before we were able to go in!

The Ballard Locks are what separate the fresh water of Salmon Bay, and the salt water of the Puget Sound. From the fresh water side, you boat into this cement box thing (the lock). They close the gates behind you, and the water slowly empties into the Puget Sound (the salty side), lowering you with it. When the water in the lock is the same level as the water in the Sound, the front gate opens, and you can cruise out into the Sound.

Heather Rae tying us up to the lock wall. The wall moves down as the water lowers. The whole thing was really ingenious!

This is a picture from the boat while in the lock. We are in fresh water. And you can kind of see how low the salt water is on the other side of the wall. On the left side of the lock (that you can't see) is a salmon ladder, that you can see the salmon jumping upstream to spawn. So cool!

The back of the lock. It's big enough for big boats, but I was surprised at how small it actually was. Going through both times, it was only us and other boat in the lock. But on our return trip, I counted 8 boats come out of the lock into the Puget Sound. I am SO glad we got there so early!

Jenny! 

 The lock door opening...

Natalie and Lisa 

I LOVE this picture of Lisa! 

I spy... a harbor seal. Can you tell how foggy it was? The water and the fog were the same color. It was so foggy, that we almost ran into a ferry. Literally. We were cruising (at a decently slow pace) when all the sudden we hear this deep long horn. Dad pulls off the throttle and directly in front of us, we can barely see a darkness through the fog. We redirected, and as we got closer we saw it was a ferry. Good thing they use radars and could see us, because we definitely could not see them!

It continued to be so foggy, that we almost literally rear-ended Seattle. We were cruising, and again, out of nowhere, we see this dark shape. We slow down and BAM! There's Seattle. 

It was almost eerie to be the only ones in the water, and to not be able to see any land or really even know where we were. It gave me a lot more compassion for those that immigrated across the Atlantic Ocean, and were on boats for months, not seeing any land. And, we knew where we were thanks to GPS!

The new HUGE Ferris Wheel in Seattle

The Girls! 

(This is a horrible picture of me. I was totally layered up and in a gigantic hoodie. I'm really not that fat. I swear :D )

The Captain

The fog burned off right as we got back to the lock. The rest of the day was BEAUTIFUL!!!

My amazing and beautiful parents!

 On our way back, we stopped at Ivar's Salmon House for lunch. It's awesome, because they have a dock for customers only. So we were able to dock up right in front, then walk up the stairs into the restaurant. 

The view was amazing. We saw several seaplanes land and take off, you could see the space needle in the distance, and the sun was finally shining down on us. 

Since we were at the Salmon House, I had to order salmon. I was SO glad I did! It was the BEST Salmon I have ever put into my mouth. Ever. I can't wait to take Sean there. It was incredible!!

This is the entry to Ivar's. It was awesome! And just a glimpse of what the feel of the place was. SO FUN!

All in all, the day was amazing. Even though the morning was foggy, we made so many fun memories, and I am so grateful for my sisters, sister-in-law, and parents, that we can all get together and have such an incredible time! We have the best family ever!