Service Project, by numbers

Unlike one of the last environmental service projects our family participated in, last month we, along with several other members of our church, spent some time planting baby trees to help and improve our community.

Here is the breakdown:

2 hours
30-40 volunteers
620 trees
About 2 donuts per person
... and zero cups of coffee.  ;)

It was a little chilly that morning, and it was a really messy job, but we all managed to have a bit of fun! :)

Snow + Cheesecake = Ryan's Birthday!

On Ryan's birthday, which conveniently fell on a Saturday, we took the girls to play in the snow.  We also brought along our beloved cousin, Sami and her awesome friend, Joy'el.  I think we could just sit on a bump on a log for a whole day with this group and still manage to have fun, but throw in some snow, hills, and sleds and it's just a whole lot of crazy fun!

Rori went down a few times but mostly had fun playing in the snow.  She liked climbing the big hills, making snowballs, then throwing them at us.  She also had fun just exploring.

Cadi had fun sledding with Sami and Joy'el... there was a lot of laughing involved!

After spending a day on Mt. Hood, Ryan, the girls, and I got cleaned up and went out to dinner.  We took the girls to The Cheesecake Factory!  There was a rather long wait, so we walked around the mall until it was time to eat.  We came across a stand that sold Pillow Pets and they had a Patriots Pillow Pet!  The stand was actually closing the next day, so all of the pillow pets were on sale!  Needless to say, Ryan got a Patriots pillow pet for his birthday! lol

When we were finally seated for dinner, we had a wonderful night.  Our server was great and the food was delicious!  Rori LOVED the bread and butter and felt so grown up doing it by herself.  We all tried a different kind of cheesecake for dessert and shared with each other.  When they brought the cheesecakes out, Ryan's had a birthday greeting written on the plate, and they sang a cheerful, robust version of Happy Birthday to him.

Between the beach trip, the snow, and dinner, Ryan had a pretty awesome birthday! :)

These are a few of her favorite things...

For the last 11 years, our stake has hosted an annual Festival of the Nativities and a few years ago, my mom started coming up that weekend to attend with us.  This year she brought my brother, Andrew with her.  We had a really nice visit!

On Saturday, we headed into the gorge for a small hike to Punchbowl.  My mom loves nature and she loves the green Pacific Northwest, and I think she really liked the hike.  It was really pretty.  It was easy to imagine it even more green in the spring or more vibrant with fall colors just a month or two earlier, but even as it was, it was beautiful.

On Sunday, after church, we went to the Festival of that Nativities.  My mom loves nativities as much as I do; that's probably where I got it from.  We loved seeing the beautiful displays, listening to lovely music, and checking out the hundreds and hundreds of nativities.  I had several of my own displayed, including one from the Philippines.  I want to collect a nativity scene from the countries where we have family history, and the Philippines is one of them (my mom's father was Filipino).  There were a few Filipino nativities and my mom didn't know that one was mine, so I was so glad when she showed me her favorite one... MINE! :) 

Another really fun part of visiting the nativities is the children's room.  Rori always loves it!  There are lots of things for them to touch and play with.  And they can dress up!  

After the Festival of the Nativities, we invited the local family to come say hi and visit a little with Mom and Andrew.  I know mom likes seeing her siblings and neices and nephews.  And Ryan made a cake that he has made a couple of times before for my mom and she really likes.  It's a super rich, dark chocolate cake.  Visiting family, eating rich chocolate... yes, these are definitely more of her favorite things.

And I like to think that we are some of her favorite things, too. :)  We were so glad to have them come visit and hope they enjoyed it as much as we did.

A Month of Thanksgiving Day 14

*Editors note: I just had to go back and edit my last two Thanksgiving days because I misnumbered them.... Dolt! lol

I am thankful for the seasons.  I love each one and also get tired of each one by the end of it.  Which is why I love them all, they each come at just the right time.  And I'm grateful for how we have the seasons here in the Pacific Northwest.  Our summers are hot, but not too hot.  And our winters are cold with occasional snow, but usually not a lot of snow.  Spring and Fall are pleasant with just the right mix of sun and rain.  And every season is gorgeous here!  I love how no matter what season we're in, we have a beautiful green backdrop.  It never goes away.  :)

Beaches

When we met for lunch on Acadia's birthday, my aunt, cousins and I decided to go to the beach the following Tuesday, as it was to be a rather hot day here and a very pleasant day there.  Too often, it's cool at the beach, but it was forecasted to be sunny, clear, and warm.  Lucky for us, the forecast was right!

The guys had to work, so it was just us girls plus Trey, which worked out perfect because we all fit in my minivan so we didn't have to take two cars. ;)  We really didn't have a very solid plan.  We thought we'd head into Astoria first, climb the tower, then decide which beach(es) to visit.  Again, with it being such a beautiful, clear day, we had a great view from the top of the column!

We ate our lunch at one of the picnic benches at the column... until the lawnmower started to head in our direction and everyone with allergies grabbed their food and left. lol  We decided that the best thing to do after eating a picnic lunch by the coast, is to have ice cream at the beach.  And the best ice cream is found at Scoopers.  To Long Beach we drove:

But after eating our delicious ice cream, we wanted to play at the beach and look at cute little shops and the best place to do that, is at... Seaside!  So south we drove and ended up here:

It was so nice!  A bit busy, but not too overly crowded, and we had a really good time!  The girls had fun playing in the waves!

I LOVE the ocean!!! 

We played at the beach for a couple/few hours, I really don't remember how long, but it was just the right amount of time for our fun little day trip, and then went to visit a few shops, inluding the Candy Man, where I filled up a bag of Salt Water Taffy for Ryan, and the "mall" where Aurora and Trey got to ride the merry-go-round. 

Finally we stopped at Subway to have a healthy dinner, then drove back home.  It was such a fun day!  And it made us all very excited and hopeful that our week at the beach in August will be just as beautiful! :)

Water Cam

I do believe this will be our final Yosemite photos post.  So if you're sick of all the pics, that's good news for you.  If you aren't, go back and review the ones I've already posted. ;)

On Memorial Day, you may recall, we spent a bit of time playing at the pool at the resort where we were staying.  I mentioned that I had taken pictures using our new water camera/camcorder.  The following are some of those pictures...

lol, that last pic of Rori flying from Ryan to Cadi makes me laugh everytime! hahaha

At risk of sounding like a commercial or something, I really like this little water camera!  We bought it because I knew we would want to take water pictures when we go to Disney later this year.  (Most particularly for the day we go to Discovery Cove to swim with dolphins!)  Last time we went to Florida, we bought 8 disposable water cameras, then had the film developed and 1) it was expensive, plus 2) the quality wasn't great.  I decided if we were going to spend the money to get photos, we might as well spend that money on something permanent that would produce better pictures.  This little Kodak I found does that and more - it has a zoom and it takes video!  So, for the same price that I expected to spend on cruddy one-time use cameras, I got a great new waterproof digital camcorder.  Our Yosemite trip was our first time testing it, and I'm very pleased! :)

This is the end of the photo posts, but I may still put up a video or two. ;)

Cadi Cam

As I posted our Yosemite photos earlier, I hadn't gone through any of Acadia's pictures yet, so now I've found that there are just a few more that I would love to share. 

The pic of the kids facing the fence makes me laugh.  It LOOKS like they are in time out or something, but I'm pretty sure they were just playing hide and seek with their uncles.  lol

Mariposa Grove:

Bridalveil Fall:

Valley Floor:

Volunteering with the Rangers at Cooks Meadow:

Yosemite Fall:

Oh deer...

Glacier Point:

Mirror Lake and Vernal Fall:

She took some pretty awesome pictures!  Thanks, Cadi!

Yosemite Day Four

Friday morning - our last day in Yosemite.  And finally, everyone was well enough to go at the same time!  Yay!!!  The weather was great!  It wasn't super bright and sunny, but the temps were pleasant and it didn't rain - so we were happy!

We went into the park seperately, agreeing to meet up mid-morning to take the shuttle to Mirror Lake.  Our family wanted to get in early so we could spend time seeing more areas we hadn't had time to stop at before.  We began at Swinging Bridge.  Which, actually, is not a swinging bridge at all.  It's a solid, firm bridge. lol  I guess there used to be a swinging bridge long ag, but it's since been replaced with the solid bridge but the name remained the same.   lol

But first, note the picture on the top right of the collage - I just LOVED how the lush, green floor covering looked like a soft carpet, blanketing the floor.  I could not let this, our last chance to get a picture of it, pass us by!

After Swinging Bridge, we decided to walk along the boardwalks in the meadow for just a few minutes.  It was so quiet and peaceful and it was so relaxing to be there, looking around at the huge granite peaks surrounding us.

But then it was time to meet up with the rest of our group, so we made our way to the shuttle stop.  We found my mom and brothers there, waiting, and Ben was sketching while he waited.  He is really good!

And then we were all on our way!  The shuttle dropped us off at the trailhead and it was a pretty easy 1 mile hike up to the lake.  It was beautiful, as we walked a long a rushing creek.

Mirror Lake was so still and peaceful!  This is a seasonal lake; later, it will be just a meadow, but we came at the perfect time.  While we were exploring the lake and surrounding area, we followed some stairs to an area completely covered in cairns that hundreds of visitors had made and left for others to enjoy.  It was pretty amazing.  Later, my sister read that some people feel that this was disrespectful, but everyone in our group, and it appeared also the other visitors there that morning, felt it was beautiful and something to honor the spirit of Yosemite.  It almost felt sacred!  Both of my girls, as well as others in our group, added their cairns to the collection. 

Mirror Lake is just such a beautiful background, we could not pass up the opportunity for a family photo.

The walk back, was just as beautiful and enjoyable as the walk up.  (Maybe more so because it was all downhill. lol)

We had a quick lunch, then headed over to Vernal Falls for our last big activity of the trip.  This was a hike.  Finally, a good, decent hike.  It wasn't especially long, even for those that went a little further than the footbridge, but it was all uphill.  It felt awesome!  And I felt it for the rest of the weekend. lol 

Some of the group stopped here, but the rest of us wanted to continue up the trail to the base of the falls.  Ryan, Rori and I were pulling up the rear and arrived at the fall last.  The others had gone ahead to the top, and Ryan really wanted to go, too, so I let him, while Cadi and I turned back.  The steep, wet stairs were making us nervous and we didn't want to go any higher on shaky legs. ;)  Ryan had been carrying Rori though, and wanted to take her with him.  I was nervous about it, but I trusted his judgement on what he was capable of, and he had done this hike before, so he knew what he was up against, so I let him take her.  I regretted it pretty soon after we parted, though.  All the way back to the footbridge, and until he finally returned there with her, I worried about their safety.  I wouldn't have worried so much if someone hadn't just slipped and fallen do their death just a couple of weeks earlier.  Of course, everyone made it back safely.  They all had a great time, loved the view, and even Rori said she was glad I let her go with Dad.  So, even though part of me wished I hadn't let them go, now I'm glad I did.  I was a nervous wreck for awhile, but once I saw she was safe, I was just so relieved that I didn't care about anything else. :)

By the time everyone made it safely down the trail, it was getting late.  We stopped by some stores so Debi could do a little shopping since she had missed out earlier in the week, then we headed home.  Exhausted, and sad that our time in Yosemite was over, but so happy and grateful for the time we had spent there.

Yosemite is a special place.  It is absolutely beautiful and has so many things to enjoy and explore.  I could easily spend a good couple of weeks there and still feel like I didn't get to see/do everything there is to offer.  I hope we get to go back someday!

Yosemite Day Three

Debi was still sick on Thursday morning and this time, she decided to just stay home instead of having to endure the long, twisty ride in and out of the park just to stay in the car the whole day.  But the rest of us enjoyed a beautiful, bright, and sunny day in Yosemite.  We decided to split up in the morning, allowing each person/group to do what they wanted until early afternoon when we would meet back up at the Lower Yosemite Falls trail.

Our family headed into the park, taking time to stop at lots of the places that kept grabbing our attention each time we drove past but didn't have time to stop for before. 

We made our way down to the valley floor and the girls and I dropped Ryan off at Yosemite Falls so he could hike the Upper Falls trail before we all went to Lower Falls.  He knew he wouldn't have time to make it all the way to the top before having to turn around to come down and meet us, but he wanted to get as far as he could, hopefully making it to the base of the upper falls.  While he hiked, the girls and I drove the loop around again, stopping to take pictures along the way.

We stopped in one of the meadows to have our lunch, then circled around to Cooks Meadow to park the car and take a walk.  The view from the meadows are spectacular, especially on such a beautiful day!



Turns out, Ryan did make it to the base of Upper Falls and since he had the camcorder with him, we have some pics of his hike.

As the family gathered to head towards Lower Yosemite Falls, I began to worry that Ryan wouldn't make it back in time.  Since they are completely seperate trails, I knew that if we left before he got there, we weren't going to see him until we got back.  But as it turned out, just as we were leaving, I saw him making his way toward us - Perfect timing! :)

I was surprised to find out that the "hike" to Lower Yosmite Falls is really just a nice walk.  But it was still a nice walk and of course, beautiful.

The trail loops around, so you can go back a totally different way than you came, which we did, and got to see even more beautiful scenery.

We all decided to head up to Glacier Point because we knew it was the perfect day to take in such a great view of Yosemite.  It meant getting home really late, but it was SO worth it!  See for yourself!  The first group of photos is from Washburn Point, just before Glacier Point.

The rest are from Glacier Point, but this first group was taken near the parking lot, which is not quite all the way to the point.

And finally, the view from Glacier Point:

On the way back to our cars, we stopped at this little lookout.  Rori had fun pretending she was Rapunzel up in her tower, while Cadi had fun playing with Half Dome. lol

We headed home excited about the gorgeous day we had just experienced and looking forward to coming back in the morning, but sad that when we did, it would be our last day in Yosemite.