Hiking

The warmer, less rainy weather is creeping in slowly and the state restrictions have been lifted on households intermingling...or at least now you can have one other household over.  So it's been nice to get together with cousins more than before.  One weekend Scott's brother and family drove up from Oregon and we did a little hike near our house.  The hike was maybe a little under 3 miles and all the kids were great hikers.  Here we are by Potholes Falls at Lacamas Creek.  I forgot to take many pictures - all of us were on vigilant kid watch since there are some drop offs on this hike - but we had a nice time.  It was fun to see them.

Another day I had taken John and Emma on a little hike - only about a mile.

John liked it...

Emma was afraid of the large waters and marveled and worried about how the bridge was staying up with only a couple of supports underneath.  Now whenever we cross this bridge she sings to keep her mind off the scariness.  Poor Emma.

John likes the bridge

I'm trying to get the kids accustomed to longer hikes, but they don't seem to enjoy it as much as I do.

Another day, Scott, kids and I met up with my brother-in-law and our nephews for some hiking fun.  My sister was 8ish months pregnant at the time and we were all happy to have her stay home and rest, even though it would have been fun to see her.

Anna stayed home because she wasn't feeling well, but was a truly tortured when we told her all the cute thighs Axel did (our two-ish year old nephew/cousin).  She was sorry she didn't get to hike with him.  Here is Axel trying to throw some rock or stick into far away water.

There were so many fun rocks to climb on.  Grant kept making me nervous since he liked to go right up too the most terrifying looking edges.

There were many cool and beautiful sights.  

This was in the Moulton Falls/Lucia Falls area, 30ish minutes from home

Lots of fun cousin times.

The abundance of natural beauty here in the Pacific Northwest is very great.  I love just walking through forests or by lakes near our house.  And there is lots of water and many waterfalls.  So hiking to see a waterfall is a thing.  I even find myself on my lone hikes thinking, "I better go see this (or that) waterfall today. " To make sure it is getting along alright.  Here is a nice one we saw on our cousin adventures.