Life in the Pacific Northwest

It seems like I frequently begin these with an apology for not having posted anything for a while. Well no more. If you're reading this you should know how things work by now. As much as I'd like to do smaller, more frequent posts it just doesn't seem to happen.

Our time in Washington is flying by and quickly coming to a close. I've been enjoying my time with Frito Lay and hopefully been somewhat useful. We've done some fun things and tried to get out to see as much of the area as possible. I'll use the pictures to show what we've been up to. Do captions go before or after the picture? Hmmm. I'll put them after.

We've visited the Portland temple.

We went to Seattle to visit family.

We went to the Seattle children's museum and had a great time...especially with the big bubbles.

Erin and Adeline have got to spend lots of time together.

We went to the Oregon beach and Adeline had her first experience with a Nintendo.

We went crabbing and doesn't she look like she's having the time of her life. Now if you mention the word 'boat' her next word is likely to be 'crab'. That tells me that deep down she really liked it.

Pulling in and sorting through the haul. Unfortunately most of the ones we caught throughout the day were too small to keep. But we still had a good time recreating our miniature version of 'The Deadliest Catch'.

Erin and I visited some tide pools and saw lots of good starfish and other sea creatures.

Adeline loved everything about the beach except the beach itself. She wouldn't walk or sit on the sand. She loved playing with her shovel and bucket once she had a towel to sit on.

My attempt at getting in the ocean. Are hoodies standard beach attire?

This was possibly her favorite part of the beach—the gravel road. She loved picking up, gathering, and throwing the rocks.

We visited the Cape Meares lighthouse.

Adeline played at the beach with Grandma some more. Once again...keep that sand away.

While at the coast we visited some scenic viewpoints. Adeline of course had to find some rocks to throw.

We've been to the park many, many times. I love this picture because that's an outfit I helped create. You'll notice the hat in many of these pictures. She loves her hat. Anytime we ask if she wants to go to the park she says "YA!" then runs to find her hat. I'm glad she's learned the importance of UV protection at such a young age. These are the moments that make a fair-skinned dad so proud.

Here's a Sunday afternoon walk. If we want to go on a walk there had better be some rocks and water somewhere along the route.

I had July 3rd off of work so we drove up near Mount St. Helens and had a picnic at one of the lakes. We spent most of our time there throwing rocks into the water.

It was a fun and pretty little place. You can see the top of Mount St. Helens poking over the top of the mountains in the background. We even saw a bald eagle swoop from the sky and attempt to catch a fish from the lake (just like in the nature movies)...unfortunately it wasn't successful.

On the 4th we went to a BBQ with some friends. It was a lot of fun and Adeline had her first popsicle experience. She was a little unsure at first, but in the words of Randy Jackson, "She worked it out in the end." I couldn't decide which picture to post so I just did them both for your viewing pleasure.

We're still working on the whole modesty thing, but I loved this pic. Look at that face! Erin...I know your eyes are closed and you hate me for this, but I had to post it.

Vancouver has a fun water area for kids that we visited for FHE. If you can't throw rocks in the water, repeatedly filling and dumping a bucket is a satisfactory alternative.

I know most of you aren't reading this because you want to know what I've been up to while Erin and Adeline have been in Utah for the past 4 days. In that case you can stop reading now. If you're still reading I won't bore you for too long. I hit 14 waterfalls and 1 volcano within a 24 hour span. I went to 6 waterfalls up the Columbia River Gorge Friday evening after work and then 8 the next day in the Mount St. Helens area. It was awesome!

This hike reminded me of hiking the Narrows in Zions National Park. The water was quite chilly so luckily it only got up to my waist.

The payoff at the end was worth getting wet.

This is the Middle Lewis River Falls. It was a perfect day for hiking. It was about 6 miles roundtrip from the lower falls to the upper falls and the entire hike was in the shade of huge pine trees.

The Windy Ridge viewpoint of Mount St. Helens was the last stop of my 12 hour day. It's quite impressive what that volcano did to the surrounding area.

I have lots more pictures, but I said I wouldn't bore you for long.