Another Bout of Hikes

Over the last couple weeks, we have gone on some more hikes. The weather continues to be perfect to explore the outdoors.

First up: Prospector Trail. This was the easy hike.

The medium hike was Cable Arch. This on is fun because it requires a little bit of scrambling.

The hard hike we went on was the Portal Trail. My favorite was the item we had to take pictures with to prove we'd done the hike.

The bonus hike was Fisher Tower. It was the furthest we had gone on the trail, and we were there when the sun set. Always a treat. We applauded after the sun had gone down. It was beautiful.

Northwest Trip Part 2: Washington

After saying farewell to the Bundys, we left Oregon and drove up to Washington to see the Maners.

There were a few spots along the road where the air smelled funny. After some investigation, we decided the smell was coming from the mills where they processed the lumber.

The first night, we had a cookout in the backyard. 

The girls had fun taking turns with my camera....

The next day everyone took the day off work and school, and we ventured to Mt. Rainer. It. Was. Beautiful.

While we were in the Seattle area, we tried out three different donut shops, checked out the new outlets, hung out, and Jenn introduced me to Charming Charlies. (We just found out it's expanding to Utah. Be excited!)

Sean and I got to go to the Seattle Temple.

 There were chestnut trees all around the temple. While we walked around, we kept hearing lots of clangs and pings. That was from the trees dropping their nuts.

Sean and I drove into the city to try out and authentic ramen shop. It was pretty tasty.

Us adults got to go on a date night to Seattle. We went to see Second Hand Lions: the Musical. It hasn't been on broadway yet, but it might someday. The performance was a premier and they are still revising it based on audience responses and input. I think it has a lot of potential.

To end our trip, we took the parents and older kiddos to a soccer game: Seattle Sounders vs. Real Salt Lake. We didn't realize when we got the tickets we were kind of in a supporters section....It was intimidating being in that stadium with over 55,000 spectators....most of them wearing lime green. Since we were noticeably supporting Salt Lake we got boos and hisses, but everyone was cordial. It probably helped we had some cute kids with us.

Our trip was so nice, it made it hard to leave. There were some stowaways in our car, and after driving them around the neighborhood we returned them home.

Thank you Justin, Jennifer, Brandon, Lindsey, Katelyn, Dylan, and Weston. We loved spending time with you guys in your own place.

Jenn also blogged about our trip here.

Northwest Trip Part 1: Oregon

We planned on taking a trip to the Northwest this year, and decided we could visit some friends along the way.

First of all, it was a beautiful drive. The weather was nice, and the earth just looked lovely. I am partial to the landscape in Idaho, but the drive along the Columbia River was gorgeous.

The Bundy's took us to see some of the sights around Salem. We drove to see a lighthouse, and went through Tillamook to get there. Tillamook gets some of their product from local dairies, the farms with a pattern on them. I thought the high school we drove by had a choice mascot: cheesemakers.

The lighthouse was at Cape Meares. It is pretty small, and very cool. We went on a little tour, and went inside the lighthouse.

There were trails around the lighthouse, and there were three things I loved around the park: 1. Ocean. It was such a clear day, and we enjoyed watching the waves crash on the cliffs. 2. Moss. It grew on everything and was so cool! We certainly don't see any of that in Moab. 3. Mushrooms. There were so many varieties of mushrooms. Everything looked like it was from a story book.

Driving along the coast was fun. I had never seen lobster traps in action before:

We stayed near the coast for dinner and went to the famous Mo's restaurant. Everything was fresh and delicious! Talk about good!

After dinner, we went for a walk on the pier and beach. It was a perfect end to a fun day.

We had such a nice weekend with the Bundy's! They took good care of us, and it was nice hanging out in their neck of the woods.

On our way out of town, we went to a fun place for breakfast: Word of Mouth. Then we drove through Portland to make our way to Washington.

Thanks David and Katie!!!