We had the opportunity to spend our long President's Day weekend with the Grahams! We pulled the kids out of school at lunch time, and didn't feel bad since it was just the Valentine's Day parties in the afternoon! We got to their house around 3:30 and spent the evening just hanging out. Sean, Mack, Morgan and I took a quick walk to the river across the street, and had a blast throwing rocks. Apparently Morgan doesn't like the camera very much, so I was really glad to get a picture of her being cute!
Steph made delicious homemade pizza for dinner, and we watched a movie before bed! The kids were so thrilled to not have to watch it in Spanish!
We woke up the next morning and got the cars loaded up with food, snow gear, sleds, and our cameras. We took off toward Crater Lake. We stopped at several places along the way, and we totally fell in love with Glide and the surrounding area. I understand why people live out in the middle of no where! It's worth it for this kind of scenery.
The weather was absolutely perfect the entire weekend. We couldn't have planned it any better. It was definitely way better than we could have ever imagined in February!
I don't remember what the first stop was called, (Steph? Wanna help me out?) but it was right down the road from their house. It was so gorgeous, and the boys had a blast climbing all over the boulders, and Morgan could have spent all day throwing rocks into the river!
Steph and I are notorious for not getting pictures of us when we're together. We made up for that this trip! We either had Sean take a picture for us, or we took selfies, at every single place we stopped.
Let me go off on a tangent. Stephanie is one of those girls that I absolutely don't know what I would do without. We lived in the same ward for only four years, but those four years solidified not only our friendship for an eternity, but the friendship of our sons. Stephanie is the type of friend that has seen me at my worst, and at my best. She has been a huge support for me when I thought I was going to break. We watched each others kids, and helped each other out constantly. Our boys did preschool and kinder together.
Not only did we constantly hang out and help each other raise our kids, but we are cut from the same cloth. It is impossible for us to hang out and not find at least one more thing that we are similar or identical in. "Me too!!" is an extremely common phrase between the two of us. We are twins in so many ways. It's amazing. To prove a point: In junior high, we each got a huge case of the light green, spearmint tic-tacs for our birthdays because they were our favorites, and the only ones we'd eat.
Steph is the most beautiful person on the inside and out. She is an incredible example to me, and really exemplifies what it means to be a daughter of God, and to put your trust and faith in Him. I admire her so much and am truly a better person because of her!
Alright, enough of the sappy stuff. Here's Kira. She's such an adorable baby! She was so good the entire weekend, and even let me hold her this time! It was so fun to hang out with baby girls. That isn't something I have a lot of experience with!
On our drive to Crater Lake, we stopped and hiked at Toketee Falls. the hike was maybe a mile? And it was fairly easy. And so fun. The falls were gorgeous, and the weather was absolutely PERFECT on this day!
Everett's outfit was to die for. He borrowed purple snow pants from Steph, and refused to take them off. Even though no one else put on their snow gear until we got to Crater Lake, Everett insisted on wearing his the entire day. Also notice his mismatched shoes. It's all about picking your battles.
This is Mt. Thielsen. It was incredibly beautiful against the blue sky.
After taking this picture, we headed 5 miles up the road to get to the North side of Crater Lake. We saw online that it was open. Well, it turns out that it wasn't open. Crater Lake isn't usually accessible this time of year because of so much snow. We really lucked out though, and it was open, but only the South side. There was a police officer that had pulled over a car right at the entrance, and he told us we had to drive the 45 minutes to the South side. We debated for a hot second if we wanted to do it, and decided to go for it. Crater Lake has been on my Oregon Bucket List for years. We can't be this close and not see it! So off we drove an additional 45 minutes (making the total drive from their house over 2 hours each way) to get to the South side of the lake.
Crater Lake deserves it's own post, so that will be next!
