Brent, the great adventure seeker has had the Mosier Tunnels on our recreation "to do" list for quite some months. And, boy was it worth the wait! The Mosier Tunnels are a series of old tunnels along the Colombia River Gorge between the cities of Hood River and Mosier, about 2 hours away from where we live. They are part of the Historic Colombia River Highway that has been shut down, and reopened to pedestrians only. It is about a 1.5 mile hike on a paved trail to get to them.
Toby was wondering "would we need this?"
The boys were absolutely fascinated by this millipede. They want to look it up online and find out more about it.
It was an absolutely stunning and glorious afternoon. I have to explain the harness/leases that the boys were wearing. Brent bought them from a co-worker who makes them. They are supposed to be for skiing/snowboarding. We thought maybe they would come in handy (for safety) on some of the steep cliff hikes we like to go on. The boys loved them and actually wanted to wear them.
The sky, the lighting and the flowers were amazing.
Heading into the tunnel...the boys were a little nervous about the dark. They found their powers and became very brave.
They were glad that they did. It wasn't so scary! And there were windows with stunning views.
This part is through the tunnels on the other side. It is covered to protect pedestrians from falling rocks.
This is going back the other way.
There is a fun story about this tunnel. Some motorists were snowed in there from Nov 19-27th 1927, and they carved a message in the wall. It is still there, but the picture did not turn out readable.
A sweet picture of Joshua showing off his missing teeth.
In this picture, I asked him to lift his lip up a little more so I could really see the gap.
Really beautiful place, amazing day. We thought the green hills looked like somewhere in Scotland or Ireland. And we didn't end up needing the umbrella after all.
It's a day for blog updates (finally) so read them all when you find time.
Our Easter was a little unconventional this year since we spent the weekend out at the coast. We had to hurry back Easter morning since I was singing in church at 9 am. After church the boys found their Easter candy hidden in the backyard. It was a lot of fun to watch them. And we had to use Brent's phone to take the pictures since we couldn't find out camera!
Enjoying some treats!
Hi
Bloggerland! I've finally found a quick moment to sit and update the blog (well, let's be honest this is going to take a quick hour-there are a million pictures to sort through).
Brent's parents came to visit us over Easter weekend and they brought two crazy fun girls with them...Brent's sister Liz and our niece Laurel. We spent a couple of days at our place and a few days at a beach front house that Brent's dad rented for everyone (thanks!). I will just post a quick run-down of our activities through picture.
-Polar Bear Plunge:
Crazy girl Liz talked Laurel and I into going swimming in the ocean. Now, I LOVE to swim...in the summer when the water is a slightly warmer degree of cold and the air is at least 70. I can stand about an hour of the cold water. But we're talking about early April, cold, cold, cold water, cloudy, and I doubt that the air temperature was even 60. The second I touched the water I was in shock. I managed to play in waist-deep waves for about 5 minutes. But my crazy girls did some all-out body surfing for 20 minutes! (And seriously, you thought I was crazy?)
Just don't mind my 21 week pregnant belly-if you're not shy, I'm not
Liz-getting used to the water (brain freeze to the max!)
Joshua got in on the action too-he loves the water
The whole experience was just too cold for Toby. He was wading when a wave washed him down. Then he was done.
-Mo's Famous Clam Chowder
Yum!...enough said.
-Bird Guy
We found this guy on the docks next to Mo's that had day old bread and dough nuts for feeding the seagulls. He was kind enough to let the kids participate...and boy were they ever happy about that!
There are some serious action shots of Toby here...
Great shot of Laurel feeding a gull
-Photo shoots
Just a couple of nice pictures of my crazy girls at the beach:
-Tide pools and lighthouses at
Yaquina head and
Yaquina Bay
It was Laurel's first time at the ocean, so we had to show her all of the
oceany sights:
A great picture of Brent's dad. I love how he always wears those cool hats.
Explorer Liz and Explorer Toby
Laurel and Liz checking out those sticky anemones.
Check out the starfish eating the crab carcass...cool.
Yaquina Head Lighthouse...the view from the
tidepools.
Sea Life
"The Belly"
Jane and Liz with a sea sponge...it was a day of good finds at the tide pools.
A fun picture with Grandpa
Inside the lighthouse tour
This is the
Yaquina Bay lighthouse...not as spectacular as
Yaquina Head, but still pretty neat.
-Drift Creek Falls/Bridge Hike
This is a hike that Brent's been dying to take us on for months. It was cold, rainy and muddy, be we are glad that we endured. Whew! I'm almost done:
A line of raincoat colors (it was getting dark, so the pics were getting a little blurry)
Trillium...the Oregon State Flower.
Hmmm...that might make for a fun middle name.
I seem to be forgetting to do a lot of things lately. It must be the combination of being very busy AND being pregnant...because I was never THIS forgetful with my other pregnancies.
Here are a few things I have forgotten to do in the last couple of weeks:
-I forgot to post pictures from Easter and our trip to the coast with Brent's family.
-I forgot to get a babysitter for a concert that we've had on our calendar for months.
-I forgot to have an Enrichment board meeting this month (until someone reminded me).
-Heck...I pretty much forgot about Enrichment, period. (Enrichment is a monthly gathering for the women in our church)
-I...I mean, the tooth fairy forgot to bring Joshua some moolah for a couple of weeks in a row after loosing THREE teeth on the top! Oh the insanity! (The tooth fairy finally came through and even added a little interest for being so late.)
-I forgot to post pictures of how dang cute Joshua is without his teeth!
There. Now I feel a little better. And...this is a picture from Easter weekend out at the coast (Joshua with his banana slug friend). Haha! Now I'm on top of things.
...did I get myself into being in charge of the whole entire school jog-a-thon? I am not experienced enough in the ways of PTSO to do this! I should have eased my way in here or there by counting box tops or stuffing envelopes. Going to one single meeting even. Why did I have to bite off the whole enchilada at once?
Now you know...if I'm missing in action...I'm probably soliciting donations or addressing envelopes or counting money or sorting out the prizes. All in good spirits.
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For those of you who don't Facebook, I thought I should let you in on a little discovery:
Our ultrasound said that we're expecting a girl! That's not the joke though...
My ultrasound was on April Fools Day, so I figured any outcome I told people might be considered a joke. So I took the liberty of telling everyone on Facebook that we were expecting twin boys! Some of the responses I got were just classic! I was able to set most everyone straight by the next day...but boy will that be one April Fools Day I will never forget!
We had a lot of fun celebrating Joshua's 7th birthday. It was the day after we got back from Utah, so we didn't do anything elaborate. I took the boys to see a movie of Joshua's choice (Monsters vs. Aliens). We had dinner at home and Joshua requested a carrot cake.
We opened some gifts. Brent happened to get his Garmain Hiking GPS unit in the mail that day, so he let Joshua open it. Brent is now getting the boys hooked on Geo Caching, which the boys call 'treasure hunting.'
Joshua didn't ask for anything for his birthday this year. He just asked us to surprise him...so Brent and I picked out some cool science toys from the Clarke Planetarium while we were in Utah (magnet sets and a cool Hoberman ball were hits). Joshua did pick out a toy for Grandma Georgina to buy him...it was a Snap Circuit FM Radio that you build yourself. Thanks Grandma! Joshua plays with it all the time and he says it's his favorite gift.
We also had a dinner a few days later with the aunties and uncles who live in Oregon...and that was so fun! My boys adore all of their aunties and uncles. Thanks so much to Lara and Annika for the thoughtful birthday gifts too...which the boys haven't stopped playing with since Sunday!
The boys were absolutely fascinated by this millipede. They want to look it up online and find out more about it.
It was an absolutely stunning and glorious afternoon. I have to explain the harness/leases that the boys were wearing. Brent bought them from a co-worker who makes them. They are supposed to be for skiing/snowboarding. We thought maybe they would come in handy (for safety) on some of the steep cliff hikes we like to go on. The boys loved them and actually wanted to wear them.
The sky, the lighting and the flowers were amazing.
Heading into the tunnel...the boys were a little nervous about the dark. They found their powers and became very brave.
They were glad that they did. It wasn't so scary! And there were windows with stunning views.
This part is through the tunnels on the other side. It is covered to protect pedestrians from falling rocks.
This is going back the other way.
A sweet picture of Joshua showing off his missing teeth.
In this picture, I asked him to lift his lip up a little more so I could really see the gap.
Really beautiful place, amazing day. We thought the green hills looked like somewhere in Scotland or Ireland. And we didn't end up needing the umbrella after all.
