Vacation to Whistler

In some ways I feel that my contributions to our blog are sort of a travel-log. We have been so blessed to visit many unique and wonderful outdoor areas this past year, and I love to share them on the blog.
Last week we went on vacation with two dear friends to British Columbia...a vacation that was a year in the planning and dreaming stage. We left home for Eugene, as the insurance man had a business meeting the next morning. After completing that, we had the rest of the day to make our way north to Silverton where our friends live. We stopped by the town of Brownsville, as it is close to several familiar towns, yet we'd never been there. After a walking inspection, we had lunch in an old house turned cafe, that was quaint and good. Next we drove to Silver Falls State Park for some hiking. This park is about 12 miles from Silverton, but the insurance man had not been there since childhood. We found the park about deserted for the season, and had the trails mainly to ourselves. There are several falls in the canyon, and an 8-mile hiking trail connects them all. But since we had a limited amount of time, we chose to drive to the falls, and hike down to each. Here is the south falls, the first one we hiked to. The water flow was low at this time of year, but very pretty nonetheless.

This photo was taken from behind the falls. If you look closely at the above photo, you can see the trail that runs behind the water. We took this picture standing there, looking out at the waterfall. One more shot from behind the waterfall, showing the water falling into the pool below.

We hiked down to several more falls, and here the trail ends at the north falls.

On the last photo, the insurance man is standing at the top of the north falls, just before the river flows over the rocks in a free fall. There wasn't much fall color in the park that day. I think with the colder weather in the next week, the leaves really began to change while we were away.

We finished up our hiking just in time to get to Silverton and get something to eat with our friends after they finished up their work days. The next morning was our scheduled time to drive to beautiful B.C. So, I'll continue that thought next week.

A Nice Big Smile :)

Cecily got her portrait taken today. She's pretty hard to get to smile. I had to lay her down and tickle her and finally got this happy face. :)

Happy Blogging...

I will be gone for 10 days to British Columbia...so happy blogging while I'm away, and I look forward to returning with more awesome photos. After all, you have Baggins to keep you company.

Jennie

Mystery Frog

As we were unable to consult our field guide, since it only covers northeastern states, we searched the web and found out that your little frog friend is a Pacific Treefrog, Pseudacris regilla. Some very nice pictures can be found here. He is apparently well-known for his big froggy voice, commonly used by Hollywood for sound effects. Fun! Thanks for documenting the little guy. The boys really enjoyed looking him up and learning more about him.

His name is 'Baggins'!

I have a lot of pictures saved up for some short posts, so hopefully will get a few shorter posts on in quicker time, esp. with snow and colder temps outside to keep me inside!
We were very fortunate to find a young out-of-work man, one of JoAnn's friends to help us out in the yard for the last few weeks. Nate was a real help, and since he had some landscape knowledge and experience we really put him to work. Here is Nate's back, along with the insurance man working on re-structuring a berm we have out front. It needed to be spread out and the grass removed, so the beautiful tree could be featured. This is a blue spruce that Grandma Bethel gave us as a small sprout. The insurance man also used up some of the many lava rocks he had dug up in his work in the back yard.
While working Nate found a frog and brought him or her to me. I told him to wait a moment while I dashed for my camera. I told him the 'boys' would be delighted to see his find.

This frog definitely had a smile on it's face. Sam and Will, what kind of frog is it? The markings were beautiful, and it wasn't very big. But it did have a big 'froggy' voice.

Will the four of you decide on a name for this frog, and leave it in the comments section? Then I will add the name to the title of this blog. You are so good at names after all.

Just one of the joys of working in the outdoors...God's handiwork.

Summer to Winter

We woke to this beautiful snow this morning. We had a snowstorm all morning long while in church, and I think about a 4 inch total. It was what we call a 'valley snow', moist and wet and heavy. We sat and enjoyed watching it with hot drinks in the early am. Yesterday we were working out in frigid temps till dusk working like beavers to get our yard finished up, and it felt so good this morning knowing that most of it was done.

Here's a photo of the back corner of the yard where the insurance man has been working all summer. Julie, here's the pergola although you didn't expect to see it in the snow did you? Dad just finished the floor of it yesterday. Whew!

The snow was so heavy there were a lot of tree branches down. Our neighbors tree lost the center out of it with broken limbs, and the insurance man was out helping them clean it up this afternoon.

The funny part is that a week and a half ago it was 92 degrees...what happened to autumn??

Last of my Seattle Trip

Towards the end of my week in Seattle, I met up with some high school friends that ended in my 40th class reunion.

At the age of twelve, after 6th grade, I decided to go to a private Christian school called King's Garden. My grandparents had saved all their lives so that if my brother and I decided to go to private school we would be able to. King's was a long ways from home in Edmonds, a northern suburb...so it meant a lot of long bus rides. I met some wonderful people in my six years there, and am still friends with many today. The campus was an old TB sanitarium and acreage, complete with a farm. In those years King's was one of the only boarding schools in the area, so we had many foreign students as well. The architecture of the buildings was and still is just beautiful...like a college campus in the east in many ways.
One of my good friends Martha was unable to come to the reunion, so I met her for an afternoon lunch and catch-up in Everett, just north of Seattle. Then another good friend, Lois, flew in from Chicago, and came and picked me up Saturday morning at my brothers'. We drove and picked up another friend Bev, and spent the day together. We were all friends from junior high at King's, as Bev left after 9th grade. We had a wonderful day in Seattle, with great weather to boot. (Not a small blessing in Seattle!)

We had lunch at Ivar's on the shore of Lake Union. Lois is on the left, Bev on the right. We asked a young man to take our photo, and when he asked what the occasion was we told him we were junior high friends getting together after 34 years. You should have seen his jaw drop : )

It was a beautiful and busy day on the Seattle waterfront. This was the view from our picnic table as we feasted on fish and chips (not hamburgers!)

We also spent some time at Greenlake, a famous Seattle lake and park, just being together and chatting.

After driving back to my brothers, we changed clothes and picked up the insurance man for our class reunion. We met at Anthony's, a nice seafood restaurant and you guessed it, right on the water, except it was Puget Sound in Edmonds, close to our old school. We enjoyed an excellent meal, and watched the sun go down across the water as we talked and shared stories. My graduating class wasn't very big, but now people are spread out literally over the U.S. and the world. So there were only nine of us there, but with our spouses it made a nice group for visiting. Here is a small photo of the insurance man and me enjoying the dinner. We had a great time, and the restaurant staff had to finally kick us out as no one wanted to leave and it was a beautiful night.

The following day after Church, we drove to the school grounds for an Alumni barbecue. My brother joined us as he had graduated there too, four years after I did. Here we are being greeted by a 'Knight', as the sports teams are the King's Knights (my grandsons should appreciate that.)

We got a better picture of the group of us in the daylight. We were missing just one from the previous night. Who are all those gray-headed people??

Going to a Christian school was a great blessing for me...more than words can tell. Each of the people pictured above is following the Lord down the path of life, and it makes for a very special bond and rich fellowship.

The insurance man and I left the barbecue Sunday afternoon and headed back down I-5 for home. It was good to get home, but I had a very special week and felt blessed.