Slippin' and Slidin'

Hi everyone,

We went down to Oregon for an overnight trip with Grandma and one of my cousins. Our destination was a water park. What made this waterslide different and worth the drive was that the waterslides came out of a 747!

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Until next time . . .

Larrabee State Park

Hi everyone,

One of our last hurrah's of the summer! We again went camping somewhat close to home since we had to bring little girl back for her parent visits in the middle of the trip. We went on a few runs, a few hikes, came back into town, went down to the beach. Oh, and we had campfires every night and roasted marshmallows and made smores. It was a great end to summer, even though summer isn't quite over yet. Maybe we'll have at least one more trip in store for us before the sunny weather disappears.

 

Throwing rocks . . . I mean skipping rocks, down at the beach was great! I managed to chuck quite a few into the water before it was time to go. (You can kind of see little girl right behind me in the bottom photo where she is throwing rocks as well. She always wants to copy me.)

The boys climbing around on the rocks, doing a little exploring.

 

 Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful!

 

And a little entertainment at the campsite! Who says you can't have fun in the dirt?

Until next time . . .

State Fair Season

Hi everyone,

All state fairs require their fair goers to partake of mass quantities of food and we were up to the challenge. We sampled poffertjes, BBQ beef sandwiches, corn on the cob, moo-wiches, and ice cream cones just to name a few. Actually we really didn't eat much more than that and we even shared what we bought so it wasn't too over the top. Somehow though we managed to miss the deep fried twinkies. We heard about those on the radio the next day and were a bit disappointed that we couldn't at least share one. 

Both last year and this year Mom and Dad let me choose one ride to go on. Last year it was Jalopy Junction, this year I've moved into the big leagues by choosing a roller coaster!! I loved the twists and turns and ups and downs.

 

 

We saw plenty of animals, from piggies to sheep to goats to chickens to dairy cows to beef cows to draft horses . . .

Until next time . . .

Rasar State Park

Hi everyone,

Before summer is officially over we thought we would take advantage of a few short camping trips. The fact that we have to stay close to home to run little girl in for her visits shortens our distance away from home a bit, but that actually lets us camp at a few state parks that are closer to home where we normally would not think of camping.

Working on my balancing act on an old growth tree

 

Parking our puppy dog

 Getting a little play on

Interviewing a ranger for the Junior Ranger program

My idea of how to use sidewalk chalk! 

I still need to help dad for helping me create my city.

 

 

Until next time . . .

Mountain Biking

Hi everyone,

We went mountain biking this past weekend. I thought it was a great adventure but I'm not sure that mom and dad thought so. Or maybe they did think it was a great adventure, just not a fun one. Either way . . .

We had a pretty smooth start. We rode down the highway to the start of the trail and it was a beautiful sunny morning. As soon as we got onto the trail we began a short climb. I say short because even though it was a bit long it wasn't anything like what we were going to encounter shortly.

Two miles of straight up with loose gravel in spots made for lots of breaks and some pushing of the bikes instead of riding them. Mom and dad kept switching bikes when pushing because mom's bike had the heavier load with the trailer and little girl. Dad's bike just had my trail-a-bike because I hopped off and hiked myself. It was definitely work, that's for sure!

Once we got to the top we raced down on the logging road to the single-track trail. Yikes, was this a technical trail. It was so skinny that the bike trailer could barely fit width-wise. Not only that but we were constantly having to hop over rocks, roots, and logs. Mom definitely was the worse for wear in this section. 30 pounds of trailer and little girl pushing her down the trail made for her bike getting out from under her a few times. Chain grease, bruises, scrapes . . . all in a day of mountain biking, right?

Not only did we have technical single-track trail to contend with, but a pretty long portion of it was right along a steep cliffside. I know this picture does not do it justice but it was a long way down.

And finally, we reached the crowning glory, the small lake! The trail back to the truck was a short way back and the moss covered trail and road was a fun section. Maybe one day we will go back and hike this trail (since the lower section is called an easy family hike) but I don't know that we will be going mountain biking on this trail again.

 

Until next time . . .