I've been wanting to take Lily on my favorite hike for a year now, and we finally hit on the right combination of weather and timing. Here she is on top of Neahkahnie Mountain on the coast. What a view!
We went up to Seattle for Elise's annual visit with the Macrodactyly specialist. Not much to report from the visit, maybe a quick blog about it soon, but we had a nice time hanging out in Seattle.
Nicole organized the first annual Irving Street block party, getting the signature of 50 people on our block and inviting a couple of adjacent blocks over for the fun with a bouncy house, food truck, and music. It was great to meet a lot of neighbors and everyone was super appreciative of Nicole pulling it all together. Looking forward to it again next year!
From there it was off for just over a week of vacation in central Oregon. On the way down we stopped for a hike around Trillium Lake. Nice views of Mt. Hood and some massive stumps for strong kids to climb on.
We spent a nice week in Sunriver. Biking around on the paths was a big hit, especially since everyone was pedaling away on their own bike this year. Yay for two wheelers!
Everyone wanted to go to the driving range, so...
The mountain bike pump track at the Wanoga Sno-Park was a surprise hit with the kids. Paul and Lily stayed for two hours after I took off for an awesome trail ride, and we came back a couple of days later so Elise could get in on the action too.
Lily took a spill and got a face full of dust but got right back in the saddle.
We got some good tennis in too. Check out those game faces...
Elise snuck in a pony ride while Lily, Paul and I were attempting to hike the Lava River Cave but were foiled by a full parking lot.
Another surprise hit during the trip was canoeing. We went out on Cultus Lake, thinking that at least one kid would hate it and complain the whole time, but they all liked it and pitched in to paddle around.
Nicole and I REALLY enjoyed our exercise getaways during the trip too... this was our typical view during an early morning run. Nicole got lots of swims in at the outdoor heated pool and I got a couple of single track mountain bike trail rides and a couple of road bike rides in too. I haven't been getting enough exercise lately so this felt great!
We weren't quite ready to head home - eight days didn't really feel like enough time away from real life. On the way home we stopped at Smith Rock State Park, the first time for any of us, and we were blown away. Ok, the kids weren't into it so much (this is where the whining we expected during canoeing actually happened) but the rock formations were incredible. Unfortunately there weren't any climbers out in the hot mid-day sun, but it was still pretty amazing.
Now it's back to reality, though having a one day workweek this week was nice. Just enough time to catch up on e-mail. Hard to believe school starts in three weeks, in the meantime we'll be squeezing whatever we can out of this summer!
