to the sawtooths and back

day 1 gassing up in wilsonville happy (see end of post for similar pic on last day)

Day 2 - anna with binky

More day 1 - camping in the mountains northeast oregon

The only site left was a handicapped site.  weird.

Oregon trail museum day 2.  Anna calls wagons "dragons" sometimes.

After feeding julia.

Anna loves soda.

Julia and the desert.

We stopped at an LDS chapel but werent dressed for church so had a picnic in their Bowery instead.

Anna likes water towers.

We camped in Mcall ID the second night.  The lake their was beautiful.  We had some difficulties getting Anna's swimsuit on right.

We played peekaboo in the trees while waiting for dinner to cook.

Clam vermicelli with mustard greens.  Cooking meals ahead and dehydrating makes camping gourmet much easier.

I couldn't help stopping at maverick for frozen yogurt.  One of my favorite treats.  We all shared a cone.

We hiked one of the PT trails rich used to climb every day when he was a fire fighter in garden valley ID.  It was very hot and a bit sketchy.  But we lived.

Anna hiked for about 5 minutes.

We got to the cabin monday night.

cousin amber

uncle bryan

bathing beauties.  Cousin Elizabeth and Anna.

Aunt Breea prego and happy.

beautiful sunrises.

mountain biking with bryan.  He "endo'd"  I'm glad I didn't for once.

Oh it was beautiful and felt good to be back on a mountain bike.  It's been a few years.

Cousin E loves to hold Julia.

Hiking.  It took us ALL day to go like 3 miles.

I've never seen so many butterflies.  This pic is lame, but there were a lot.  And a lot of wildflowers.  Rich got really annoyed with all my comments about the flowers and butterflies.

Stopped for lunch.  Anna had to beg food off everyone of course.

Anna is heavy to carry.

we hiked to a waterfall that was actually down in a ravine - so you couldn't see it.  The kids were a bit disheartened.

anna and E did some bouldering.  "queen of the rock!"

We stopped at this stream to cool down and have a waterfight.  Anna played in the water forever even though it was FRIGID.

WHEN we got back we made anna a birthdya cake in the shape of a choo choo train.  She loved it despite the  sad look on her face.  Happy 2 years anna!

grandpa and julia.

uncle tay.

gavin

amber

amy and evan.

anna sometimes retreated to this corner to be alone.  she's not used to so many people.  oh man she takes after her dad doesn't she?

More hiking.  Amber is the only kid that would still hike with us.  I made her carry my pack.  Not really but she did want to try it on for a while.

we hiked to a pretty lake with tadpoles. 

I made amber a wildflower tiara.

Evan at a ghost town.

Anna panning for gold.  it was hot.  on the way home from here we stopped at a burger joint and shared yet another ice cream cone.  anna ate a few bites and ran through sprinklers while i nursed julia.  we looked really ghetto im sure.

Anna is nervous near aunt amy.  We drug her on a hike with us the next day.  Horton peak.  It was really steep.  Anna got grouchy so rich let us hike while he watched her.  we took the pack.  she pooped a bad one.  rich had to walk back to the car holding a poopy girl.  he was grouchy.  But oh well, amy and i just wish we could have made it to the top, but we had to get back home so we could get to our kayaking trip on time.  thanks for the hike ames.

 Before entry to the water.

 I suck at kayaking.

 it was really really cold water.  and i thought i might die.

 Rich looks pro.

 but got scarred and jumped out.

Back at the ranch anna got thrown up on by cousin amber.  They were out driving in the boonies and the only clothes available was grandmas shirt.  I had a hard time getting anna to take it off she liked it so much.

I told Gavin stories from harry potter and then told amy she needed to buy him the book because i was done botching the story.  So she did - and this is what gavin looked like the rest of the trip.

Amber and i played some drawing games.

Anna liked to be by gavin.

reading stories with aunt breea.  oh - missing are pics of rich's backpacking trip with the boys.  I didn't feel like i could leave anna any longer so i stayed.  im mad i did because it looked amazing.

We stopped at red fish lake.  julia had her first taste of sand.

we got rained out.

but that didn't stop the kids from eating popscicles.

we went on drives everynight looking for elk.  we finally saw some on our way out saturday morning.

we stopped in hermiston on the way home and i ate an entire orange watermelon myself (pretty much).  Rich took anna to a car show and to look at fire trucks while i fed julia.

it was a long drive home.

pretty rough at times.

anna looked like this when we couldn't find her binky.

but we made it home and our garden looks amazing.  my daisy's bloomed!  The girls are wearing matching outfits.  hooray.  back to sherwood life.