Hayden and I went up to Hurricane Ridge for his very first snowshoe trip. I’d purchased some snowshoes for him the year before but it seemed that I could never find a good weekend to get up there with him until now. I think he did pretty good for his first time out and I can’t wait to get back up there with him. I recently bought him a new overnight pack and I am ready to get him out this summer for an overnight trip or two. He is really growing up quick.
Hayden and I made a trip down to the Gorge and explored a little. We saw the Vista House, hiked the Oneonta-Ponytail Falls Loop, rode our bikes in the Mosier tunnels, drove up Stacker Butte in the Columbia Hills, visited Horsethief Butte, and climbed Beacon Rock. Where else can a father and son get away and get to see and do so many cool things? »Read More
For Dawn’s 40th birthday she wanted to go to Disneyland. Disneyland is her favorite place on Earth and I couldn’t tell her no (not that she would take no for answer anyhow). We spent nearly a week in Anaheim visiting with the Mouse and friends. Dawn has a lot of friends and family that love her. Her friend Jen and her family came along, as did her friend Jill. Her mother was there and her aunt Cheryl, Uncle Tom and cousin Lynette. Oh, and her sister Kim and niece Cassidy (AKA spiderman) were also there.
There are a ton of pictures to see. Click the read more button to see them all.
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We took Hayden and his friend Claira to see Santa on the Polar Express. This year we boarded the Polar Express in Centralia. We all had fun except for Dawn who thought Santa looked a little ghetto this year. At any rate, the kids liked it. We went to the Country Cousin Family Restaraunt afterwards.
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Hayden and I spent the weekend at the Gorge exploring and doing a little camping. Our first stop after the long drive was Multnomah Falls. We mainly were just there for a bathroom break but I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures while we were there.
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Spent the weekend camping with Dawn and Hayden in the Icicle River area near Leavenworth.
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Every year we celebrate the 3rd of July in Poulsbo with the great firework show they put on which frees us up to do other things on the 4th, like, uhh, watch more fireworks.
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Spent the week (and my birthday!) in Kauai with family. Lots of R&R, boogie boardin’ hiking’ and ATVing. Had a blast. This was my third trip to the Garden Isle. Kauai is probably the only place in the world that I feel homesick for other than home. Of course if I lived there and had to work it would probably spoil the magic, but one can dream!
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This was my wife’s birthday and she celebrated by going scrapbooking with her friends. I had just purchased a new camera and wanted to try it out, plus I had not been out with my son for a while. This wasn’t really a hike but we had fun nonetheless playing around on the beach and checking out the old fort.
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Hayden and I drove down south of Olympia near the town of Littlerock to check out these weird mounds that I read about online. The weather started to turn right as we arrived so we did not walk any of the trail but we did walk to the observation platform. While the geology is very interesting, the location kind of sucked since there is a rifle range right next to it and a big parking lot can be seen across the way. The mound’s origins are a mystery and were first believed to be Indian burial grounds. A couple of theory’s now are that the mounds are the work of pocket gophers over thousands of years or possibly earthquake vibrations made them. Nobody knows really where they come from but they are an interesting thing to ponder. Mima mounds are found most frequently in Washington State but can also be found in other parts of North America as well as South America and Africa.
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Adventure number 3 on my trifecta of fun weekend. Yesterday the coast, today the Mountain. On the spur of the moment we decided to head up to Mount Rainier to do some sledding. Well OK , we really came up to see the new hotel but found out it was closed for the season when we arrived at the park. When we saw the sledders we couldn’t resist so we went to the gift shop and bought Hayden a sled and some shades. I remembered to pack his snow suit but neglected to bring his gloves so a spare pair of socks was utilized. This worked well until they got wet and he got a little cold. It was 50 degrees at Paradise when we arrived. Crazy January weather, I love it!
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Hayden and I took a hike at Guillemot cove. It was not as cold this year as it was last year about the same time when we hiked it. The people who maintain this trail have a lot of work to do as the lower section down past the bridge is part of Boyce Creek now. It looks like maybe a beaver moved in and diverted the creek. Another section between the Main Access trail and the Sawmill Trail seriously needs to be brushed out. All of this was OK for us though as it added to our adventure and there was a different part of the trail that we had not been on called the Stump House Trail. Rumor has it that a Pirate once lived in the Stumphouse. Click here for Treasure Map.
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Miscellaneous pictures from a trip we took to Lake Chelan.
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Took a drive around Mount Rainier with Hayden.
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This was a short hike I took with Hayden. Very cold that day but clear. This was Hayden’s first hike.
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