Fall

We have enjoyed many atypical sunny fall days here in our area. As we prepare for our big trip, we have just been having fun close to home.

[a walk in the woods outside our home]

We went for the grand opening of the 

NW Ski and Snowboarding Museum at Snoqualmie Pass...

a bit too crowded to see much but a lot of cool people from the history

of the pass were there.

[first cotton candy, at the fair]

[pumpkins at The Nursery at Mt. Si]

[catching raindrops]

[hiking Little Si; friends helped carry babies]

['car wash' fun]

[leaf crunching]

Welcome June!

Here in Washington, the temperatures are similar to June, the snowpack more like July. We enjoyed a lovely almost-summer weekend with long and short hikes in the mountains.

Anne and I on our way to Melaka Lake

Reuben enjoying the view

Kye and his buddy Eli hiked to Franklin Falls; 

they did great, hiking 2 miles by themselves.

K actually goes really fast and requires me to jog on the way down...

he calls this 'turbo' mode.

The new 'smile' from Kye

Gold Creek Pond, no snow left

Yep, 'smiling'. :)

Yellowstone Whirlwind

We decided to drive through Yellowstone on our way home, even though it wasn't exactly 'on our way'. When you drive right up to the entrance, you might as well go through it, right?

As you approach Yellowstone from Red Lodge, you go up and over Beartooth Highway. We really wished we had more time to explore here; in fact, we could probably spend a solid week just in the Beartooth Wilderness. This time, we just drove right through, stopping only for a few pics. It is beautiful, wild, and empty (once off the highway).

On the way up Beartooth

At the summit of Beartooth (nearly 11,000 ft), there is a little ski area,

open only in the early summer. 

Here is the view from the top, where several runs 

go down about 3,000 ft of vertical.

Coming down from Beartooth Summit

It was a super quick visit of Yellowstone and it was actually great. We picked our top four sites/things to see and hit them all: bison, Yellowstone Falls, Grand Prismatic Spring, and Old Faithful.

Lots and lots of bison; this is taken from the truck window

as we stopped while they crossed the road

(we weren't the dumb tourists getting too close for a good photo)

Same thing here, we are only steps away from a parking lot and our truck.

Kye wanted to take his stuffed sheep, 'Baby', to see the buffalo.

Yellowstone Falls

One of the prismatic springs, 

from the boardwalk

I had heard you could take a hike to get you above the prismatic springs for an aerial view, but it was hard to find any info about this hike. After wandering around the boardwalk area, we could see people on a trail past the springs and could also see the road to access it. We hiked a short distance on the Fairy Falls trail (actually a road), then took one of many side trails up the hill for a fantastic view. 

If you do a Yellowstone visit, I highly recommend this. It isn't a super hard or long hike, but the view is amazing and there are much fewer people than on the boardwalk.

Grand Prismatic Spring

After our hike, we ate a great meal of Bison Meatloaf in the Old Faithful Lodge, then found a spot to watch the Old Faithful Geyser blow. Kye ran around in his pajamas as we waited, giggling and getting silly tired.

And when she blew, Kye said, "Kaboomy!"

Life in a Good Spot

We live in a beautiful place, with lots of fun to be had close to home. Before we left on a recent trip, we got into a fun rhythm at home. Hiking the local trails, swimming at Rattlesnake Lake or Lake Kacheelus (a short jog from home), berry picking, and even some climbing as a birthday treat for Heather.

Rattlesnake Lake

Walking around Gold Creek Pond with Auntie Carly

Lake Kacheelus

 Berry picking with Callum

4th of July hike to Snow Lake with Dawn & Anne

and the neighborhood 4th of July party

snack time at stump lake (Kacheelus)

walking around the ski hill

view down from Killer Bob's route

Swish-Swish-Swish

By now, we are accustomed to having walls of snow around our house and plenty of skiing days already. But our ski hill is covered in shrubs and rocks and creeks still, not enough snow for skiing.

We both had time off for the holidays and, while we would have preferred to have spent the time skiing, we got out for some hikes up the ski hill instead.

A couple days after this evening hike, we were blessed to receive a few inches of snow. We got out for a couple ski runs up Hyak that weekend. It was sunny and gorgeous on Sunday, so I loaded Kye up in the pack for a little walk. I wasn't planning on him taking a nap, but he zonked out within a few minutes.

(drool)

Before Kye, I shared a million moments of outdoor adventure with Brandon. Now, I get to experience it all with this little guy. There's something pretty amazing about hiking along in the twilight, with Kye pointing to the moon and trying his new word (which sounds a bit more like 'mom'). And on the day pictured above, he woke up for the ski down and made the sound effect for skiing (swish-swish-swish). It was horrible skiing but he didn't care. It was fun and exciting to him. 

Brandon and I get to enjoy all the same activities we did before, but with a renewed sense of adventure, watching this little guy discover the world around him. Thanks God.