A Scenic Drive

It was such a beautiful day today that Jason, Ethan and I decided to take a drive on the Historic Columbia River Highway. Our first stop was the Vista House. It's a small building with a balcony to see the view of the Columbia river. Ethan's highlight-seeing a lady in the building with a parrot on her shoulder. The river was looking particularly blue today.

Our next stop was meant to be a trailhead to hike to a waterfall, but we discovered that there were many waterfalls along the way. The next stop was Latourell Falls. There was some funky neon yellow growth on the rocks near the falls.

Next was Bridal Veil Falls.

Then Horsetail Falls. Highlight for Ethan-watching a dog swim in the icy cold water below the falls. It was here that we were going to hike to Ponytail Falls, but we decided that we'd rather enjoy nature at Taco Bell. By the way, I had the best thing I've ever had at Taco Bell (which isn't difficult), the new chicken cantina taco. We'll leave Ponytail Falls for another day.

Hiram Goes to Homecoming

Bet you never thought you'd read THAT blog title (for a few years anyway)! Well, it's true, another chapter in the comedy that is our life. A couple of weeks ago Hiram said he had something to tell us, but that he wasn't going to tell us for a few days. Okay, whatever. Then a couple of days later he leaked through Caleb that he was going to a dance with a girl. I thought it was just another one of Caleb's jokes. When I confronted Hiram, he told me very non-chalantly that he asked a girl to Homecoming "as friends." What?! I asked if it ever occurred to him to ask us if he could even go. Apparently not. I explained everything going to a school dance entailed and that he was clearly in over his head. He needed to get more information. The next day he asked one on his friends (who is a girl) everything he needed to know about going to a dance. She wrote out a detailed list which included things like "don't forget your student id," "wear a button down shirt and slacks," and "dance the night away." It was very cute. Then the day finally came. I was nervous for him all day. Hiram's date's mom drove them to and from the dance, so they came to our house to pick him up. Hiram was very nervous and awkward at first. I hoped he would be okay. When he came home he was so excited to tell us what a great time he had. He and his date met up with some friends at the dance and they all did "dance the night away." It was so great to see him so happy and to have him tell me about his friends. He even admitted that if he had the choice of moving back to Utah, he wouldn't do it. I can't believe the positive change he's made since he started school. Go Hiram!

Ethan's a Teenager!

I don't know how it happened, but Ethan is now thirteen! What happened to my Sweet Crete?!


We made Ethan use a GPS device to find his birthday presents. Here he is doing his Lewis and/or Clark pose.
The highlight of any birthday in our house is getting helium balloons for the sole purpose of sucking the helium out and talking like a chipmunk. Ethan had to tease the cat before doing that though.
Ethan bought a BB gun with his birthday money. Last night he also bought an electric guitar and we enjoyed his "music".
Ethan's cake had a gorilla on it because his school mascot is a silverback. I thought I was pretty artistic with the black candles symbolizing the gorilla's cage.

Ethan's goal in teenagerhood is to "not become a jerk like Hiram." We'll see how that goes :)

Indian Beach

After visiting Indian Beach at Ecola State Park a couple of weeks ago, Ethan wanted to go there again for his birthday. For YEARS it's been Ethan's dream to have a campfire on the beach. He finally realized that dream last weekend. On this visit it was a beautifully sunny day. We were able to watch the surfers surf and the sun set as we (Jason) set up the firepit, hauled the firewood to our spot and started the fire. We BBQed steak skewers on the fire for dinner and told stories. It didn't occur to any of us that we would be going back to our car in the dark, so we didn't bring a flashlight. After it got dark all we could hear was the waves crashing against the rocks. It was kind of uncomfortable not knowing where the waves were. The word that kept going through my mind was, "tsunami". Caleb thought we were all going to die, so he wanted me to constantly take pictures of the shore with my flash so he knew where the water was. When it was time to go, we made a human chain and used the light of one Blackberry and my camera screen (which wasn't much) to make our way back to our car. I've never seen us work together so well as we stumbled through the dark!

Roloff Farm

On our way to the beach last weekend we stopped at Roloff Farm. If you have seen "Little People, Big World" on TLC, you know where I'm talking about. We got to meet Amy Roloff and see some cute animals. We also saw Jacob run past us. Caleb is so funny when he encounters "famous" people. He starts freaking out and wants to meet them, but is really shy. The alpacas are always cute. They had a small pig in the petting zoo named, "Hamlit" (little ham). Now Jason wants one.

That's Ecola, Not E.coli State Park

We hadn't been to the beach for a few weeks, so we set out for Seaside once again this past weekend. After the obligatory Tillamook ice cream cone and salt water taffy (probably made in Salt Lake), Jason wanted to do a little crabbing. Sitting around waiting to catch inedible baby crabs is not my idea of fun so I went on a hike by myself at Indian Beach in Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach. Indian Beach has been the site of many scenes from movies including "Goonies", "Kindergarten Cop" and "Twilight"-the scene where Jacob and Bella are talking about the origins of his tribe. It was a gorgeous place!

The purpose of the hike was to get to a viewpoint to see Tillamook Rock lighthouse about a mile off the coast. I didn't realize that the hike was so steep THE ENTIRE WAY. There were numbered posts along the way with #9 being the last post. By the time I got to #7 I was determined to go the rest of the way even though I felt like I was going to have a heart attack. It was so misty and humid, but I didn't mind, at least it wasn't raining. I love hiking through coastal forests, it always makes me think that I've been transported to prehistoric times and that I'll see a brontosaurus at any moment.

It was only an 1/8 of a mile to the lookout from post #9. I finally got there and this is what I saw:
Great view, huh? Oh well, I was very proud of myself for making it to the end. The way back was much easier. The beach was so beautiful that I wanted the rest of the family to see it. I went to pick up everyone in Seaside then we went back to Indian Beach to play around.
We finally got out the kite we bought at Costco about 4 years ago that the kids have been asking to fly for about that long.
After walking along the beach for a while I turned around and saw the lighthouse I had hiked up the hill to see.
We played around for a while then it started to rain (big surprise) and it was getting dark, so we headed home.

Our Anniversary

Jason and I celebrated our 15th anniversary last week (time flies!). We wanted to get out of "The Couve" and go to a Portland neighborhood we had never been to. We went to the Hawthorne neighborhood with it's quirky shops and restaurants. We ate at the Waffle Window. It's exactly as the name says-a window on the side of a restaurant where you can order the most delectable waffle creations and none are over $4! The pumpkin pie waffle was sooooo good! It consisted of a yummy waffle, a slab of homemade pumpkin pie filling, whipped cream and carmel drizzle. I ordered the cheesecake waffle, but it came with no cheesecake (we didn't have time to order another one). It was still topped with FOUR kinds of fresh berries. YUM! I'm sure we'll be back.




We then headed over to the Bagdad Theater for a $3 movie. It is a theater that was built in the 1920's with a middle-eastern interior. As we were waiting in line to buy tickets, a bagpiper walked by providing pre-movie entertainment. I turned to Jason and said, "We're not at the Megaplex anymore!" Luckily the Bagpiper stopped then the movie started. About 10 minutes before the movie ended the audio stopped working and we had to guess what the characters were saying. We did get tickets for 2 free admissions for next time.
All in all, it was a very interesting and fun anniversary date!