Mt. Hood

We went on a little family vacation to Mt. Hood a few weeks ago.  We had so much fun.  Here are a lot of pictures from our week.

Our Rental Condo

We rented a condo.  It wasn't very crowded - I think those condos get more use during the winter, so it was pretty peaceful.  There was a statue of bigfoot in the condo.  Some people were afraid to walk by it in the dark.

Living room

Kitchen

One of the bedrooms

It was a nice place.

Timberline

Here we are at Timberline Lodge.  I'd never been there before.

The architecture was very interesting.  And lots of little details like door knockers that were unique.

Great views and thin air.

This is where Matthew had started his backpacking trip a week or so before.  We hiked around the lodge area a little bit and I felt pretty winded right away.  Such a high elevation!

Close up Mt. Hood

We saw lots of "through hikers" or hikers who are hiking/backpacking a long distance and stop at Timberline for food or rest.  The Pacific Crest Trail goes right by the lodge.

We hiked a little ways and then the girls wanted to turn back.  Anna wasn't feeling her best that day and Emma just gets tired easily so we turned back and the boys went on.

Boy hike!  Matthew probably felt like an expert on hiking by then.

The Timberline area was really cool.

Trillium Lake

We went to Trillium Lake one day.  It was so beautiful!

We hiked a little bit

Soaking up nature!

And then we swam and kayaked and paddle boarded

I think this is me and Matthew in the kayak and Anna on the paddle board

After the lake we got ice cream in Government Camp

Yum!!

Ski Bowl

We went to do all the activities at Ski Bowl one day, starting with the alpine slide.

Riding the ski lift was scary the first time for some.

But pretty soon we were all old pros.

We had to take turns going alone since we had an odd number.

We went on the alpine slide a whole bunch of times.  So fun!

Then on to other ski bowl activities.

The little race cars

Aqua ball thing

Whatever these are

Bungee trampoline

We did a few other things like the summer sledding hill, mini golf and the maze.

It was probably only 80 degrees but I felt so warm and dehydrated after just a short while out there.

We fed the horses

And some went for a little ride

We were so hot we went and got more ice cream and went swimming.

Swimming

Every evening we spent 1 1/2 to 2 hours at the condo pool.  Scott had a bunch of work he had to get done so he was able to work on it for a few hours each evening while the rest of us swam.

There were these inflatable tigers at the pool which everyone had fun with.

The kids just swam and swam - usually the pool wasn't too busy.

Little Lake Hike

This was a short hike near our condo.   I went running there one morning - a truly terrible run.  The scenery was beautiful but I was huffing and puffing so much at that high altitude.  Hiking there was nice and easy though.

Lots of fun to explore

Enid Lake Hike

Another short hike where we found a lot of wild blueberries and almost got hit by bikers several times.  Gotta be careful!!

Emma packed her own luggage and I didn't check it.  She forgot a hoodie or light jacket and had to borrow mine most of the week.  That's why she is swimming in that coat.  She liked picking blueberries.

On the way home from Mt. Hood we stopped in Cascade Locks and got ice cream.

It was a great trip!

Goodbye Bigfoot!!

Maybe we'll see you again another year!

A Few More Summer Activities

My brother-in-law's dad and step mom live near by and have a pool.  They invited us over, along with my sister's family to swim and play one afternoon.  They let us stay at their house during the eclipse a few years back and are very kind to us.  Everyone had fun swimming.

They also have a pretty serious zip line at their house.  It's high and long and involves being harnessed in. Here is my brother-in-law, Dana, helping Matthew get ready.

There he goes!!

Woohoo!!

Here is Scott going down the zip line.

Matthew, Scott, Grant and myself chose to ride the zip line.  

Anna, Emma and John opted out.  It is pretty high and scary, so I get it.

Weee!!

Anna with our nephew, Magnus, firmly on the ground.

We had a lot of fun at their house.

Blackberry picking one hot afternoon.

John and Emma doing a craft one morning.  I got some different dollar store crafts and they have been working on one most mornings.

Grant built this Lego scorpion.  This is not from a set, it's his own design using pieces he already had.  I love all his cool creations.

John went to an eco-science camp.  I mostly signed him up for this because it said they got to care for some chickens and hamsters during the camp and John likes animals.  Unfortunately he was sick and missed the first day, which was chicken day.  So he didn't get to see the chickens.  He did make this solar oven.

He also made a hydroponic growing system of some kind.  His little plant died soon after bringing it home so we might have dome something wrong.

Anna got to go to girl's camp this year and had a great time.  She has made a few friends in the ward and stake and they had a lot of fun camping for a week.

Anna had a sewing project she had been working on and needed some help.  Grandma Guptill came up to help her with it one afternoon.  

Anna was so happy about her nightgown.

Matthew went on a 50+ mile 5 day long backpacking trip from Timberline Lodge to Cascade Locks with a group of boys and leaders from church.  He has never done anything like this before.  They left on Tuesday and Friday evening Scott drove up and met them at a lake campground and stayed the night.  He ended up bringing Matthew home early.  He had been having a lot of foot pain so he skipped the last day.  Matthew has really low arches and the trail runner shoes he was wearing weren't providing the right support.  Once he got home and recovered we went to the running shoe store for an evaluation and some inserts.  That helped me know more about what kind of shoe will serve his feet best.  Hopefully his feet won't hurt on long hikes in the future.  He made it about 45 miles - way to go Matthew.  Here he is before his hike.

And after.  His feet were pretty swollen for several days.  Lots of swelling around the arch.

The older two kids were gone on their adventures on the same week so the three younger kids and I did some fun things of our own.  Here we are at the swimming hole one afternoon.

It was lots of fun.  I even got in and swam a little with them.  More summer adventures to come.