The Wood Between the Worlds

September 30, 2010
Is it essential that we remember exactly how old we are turning each year?  I think it's 33 this time, but honestly I'd have to do the math.  It's really funny how suddenly after 30 or 31 all the years are seeming to run together.  Maybe it's because Brent is finally done with school so there's no graduation ahead.  It's all just...life.  And guess what?  Brent's been done with school for just about 4 years now.  Yep.  That totally ran together and smushed into what seems like one year.  Weird.  Well, Brent and I...we don't care about aging.  In fact, we embrace it.  It's fun to grow older together.  Plus we have great plans for our life together, and one of them is to have Elsa back again...so the older we get, the sooner that will happen.  Right?

As life goes, things did not work out for Brent's 33rd birthday as planned.  For months we were planning our trip to Coeur D'Alene, Idaho over his birthday to be something special for him.  Hiking, exploring new territory...all things that Brent lives for.  But as I wrote in my last post...Coeur D'Alene did not work out (car kaboom!).  So we moved on to plan B: hiking and exploring closer to home.

Molalla River Corridor:
Brent had discovered this place by himself and he was dying to show it to us.  And let me tell ya, it was FABULOUS!  Kind of small and tucked out of the way, not very busy, but amazingly beautiful.  It would be a great place to build a homestead someday... (oh, dreams).  Anyway, we started out by visiting shotgun falls...a teeny little trail that is OH SO easy to miss.  Many of the local Molalla folk had never been there before.

hidden trail head

tiny little side canyon...the trail requires quite a bit of scampering

...and Brent had to ferry all of us across this steep ledge

see the waterfall through the trees?  It was really a quick hike.

the boys were playing and climbing and throwing rocks, as they usually do...when Joshua slipped and scraped his elbow!

self portrait with a sleeping Ollie in the Moby wrap

Haha!  Do you like the melted frosting and the random, mismatched birthday candles?...obviously I didn't plan ahead very well.  I'm not very good at making cute birthday celebrations...at least I baked a chocolate cake, eh?

NOT 27...it's 33!

little Brent

I LOVE his mouth...it's so pretty.