Sauvie Island and Gorge: Sunny days with friends

On Sat we were on our own and it was the first sunny fall day.  My preschooler has been hard to motivate so I thought a hike involving a pumpkin farm might be just the thing!







We headed to a farm on Sauvie Island and spent some quality time playing in the hay.







Amy got a beautiful face painting as sister watched.  She enjoyed bouncing in the bounce house.







Then we went into the corn maze...Now if you must know my sense of direction has a reputation for being rather poor.  I figured Amy would help us find our way out!  We wandered for quite some time and eventually found the exit.







Leaving the farm we enjoyed the Portland Voodoo Doughnut truck and drove out to the hike out to Warrior Rock Lighthouse.







Mount Saint Helens across the river was beautiful, covered in fresh snow after our colder rainy week.







At Amy's request, we took the "low route" along the beach, climbing over muddy outcroppings.  Fortunately we were on top of one of these outcroppings when this huge barge came by and made an enormous wake that just barely missed us.







On the way back we enjoyed building and demolishing a sandcastle.







Baby Analise ate some dirt and all three of us were quite covered in mud.










The next day we picked up our friend, Celebrity, and headed up to show her the gorge.  We enjoyed the beauty of Multnohmah Falls first.







My mom had taken the train up to join the fun.







After our stop at Multnohmah Falls we met up with friends at Latourell Falls.  The kids immediately started rock climbing







We hiked past Latourell Falls and spent some time playing and visiting at Guy Talbot Park.







We stopped at Vista House to take in the river/ gorge view.







Baby Analise enjoyed some serious stair climbing at Vista House.







Next we headed up to the top of Larch Mountain to hike up Sherrard Point.  The panorama of mountains surrounding us was amazing.








Mount Saint Helens, Mount Rainier, Mount Adams, Mount Hood, and Mount Jefferson were all out in full glory!







My soul was fed by the community of friends and the amazement of these wonderful Columbia River spots.

Winter lights, waterfall, and snow fun

Late Christmas night, we welcomed a new friend to our home, Rich Mumo. He is from Nairobi, Kenya, and is here attending George Fox Seminary. To help him get accustomed to the weather and because it is one of our favorite adventures, we headed to Zoolights on a dark and stormy night.






The light show was excellent as usual. We all enjoyed our walk around the zoo checking out the lights.






A bonus was also having our friend and adopted family member Doug with us for the week. Amy was sleeping in a tent on our floor which was great for the first few days but she was also happy to get her bed back at the end of the week.






Amy was so happy to have a new family member to welcome and happy to have her Uncle Doug around as well. The lights were a lot of fun.






After a lot of walking in the rain, we all headed home for hot chocolate and bedtime.






A few days later, Rich agreed to go with a few of us snowshoeing. We headed out toward Mt. Hood's White River. We stopped in Sandy to rent snowshoes and discovered that the ride to the ski area was closed and totally clogged because they were forcing everyone to put on chains. Mt. Hood had been dumped on with new snow!






We went to plan B and headed back to I-84. We decided to stop at Multnohmah Falls to take in the view.






The falls was incredible as always and a nice place to stretch our legs after driving.






We continued around to Hood River and were able to rent snowshoes there, then headed to the Northeast side of the Mountain.






The snow was amazing. We headed up on an unknown route, enjoying the trees covered in snow and the beautiful fresh snow on the ground.






We continued along on our beautiful unknown route, passing some sledders. Amy did try out her skis and did a great job.






Along the way, Amy found some great holes to sit in and get cozy. We found a great lunch spot and enjoyed a bit of a rest.






On the way back down, Amy slid down the big hill with Sarah and I running beside her on snowshoes.






We arrived in Hood River just in time to return the snowshoes. What a great unexpected adventure. Everyone stayed warm enough and a great time was had by all.