Moulton Falls

It's taken me awhile to finally post this!

A week and a half ago, Chris drug me and the kids out of the house on a little walk at Moulton Falls.  This was kind of rare, normally I'm the one rarin' to go on the hikes, dragging Chris out. I'll admit I was a little cranky with it all, too, but it turned out to be a great little walk and we found Yacolt Falls, which surprised us. Thanks babe!

Moulton Falls is just past Lucia Falls, another few miles. There's actually a trail connecting the two; we really want to do that one, and now that we've been there and seen the trail, I think it'll be possible, with the jogging stroller.

The actual waterfall itself is right next to the parking lot. You just go down a little flight of steps, and boom! there you are. 

I had trouble getting a good picture of the falls, b/c of the angle of the rocks. It was pretty, though nothing mind blowing.

The actual trail starts on the opposite side of the parking lot; you walk across a little bridge running parallel to the road. This bridge crosses where the Yacolt River is dumping into the East Fork of the Lewis River.

Isaac was afraid to ride his bike across the bridge! Chris had been here before, on a mountain bike ride with a friend, so he knew the trail was going to be bike-friendly. Right across the bridge there were the cleanest restrooms I have ever seen in a county park--maybe b/c peak season hasn't picked up too much, but I was impressed!

The trail was very wide, made of compacted gravel, definitely no crazy hiking or anything. It slopes up and around, to a high bridge. The hill wasn't steep at all though, both boys made it up on their bikes without a problem.

And then it was pretty much a flat walk along the river.

I think I need to quit letting them pee in the backyard so much. I also love how when one does it, the other has to immediately follow suit: monkey see, monkey do. Luckily the trail was empty at this point.

This little wet hillside...

...was swarming with these crazy centipede-y things:

Disgusting, yet fascinating. There must have been a huge hatch or something that had just happened. We kept seeing them periodically on the trail, along with some HUGE black beetles. I think Danny had to stop and examine every. single. beetle. But it's cute, and it's why we take them on hikes!

Danny loves waterfalls, of any shape or size :)

And then the crazy boy insisted on wearing this stick in his helmet, for the entire last half of the hike. I love his face here.

We made it back to the car, slowly. There are tons of other trails linking to this one, some just small little jaunts down to the river and picnic spots, some connecting into extensive trail networks (Bells Mountain and then tons of hikes on Silver Star Mountain--there are sooooo many of these that Chris and I want to do. It will be fun as the kids get older exploring this area and becoming more familiar with it. I totally take for granted that I have all of this practically right out of my door).

When we got back to the little bridge right by the parking lot, we noticed a trailhead immediately across the road. I asked Chris if he knew what it was; he didn't, and suggested we check it out. I hesitated, mainly b/c I'd carried Isaac for about half a mile, but we decided to go for it.

This trail was much more narrow, the kind of trail I grew up on, backpacking with my parents. However...Danny and Isaac absolutely loved it! They tore down this trail at a speed that I had to walk fast to keep up! They'd both been dawdling along the other nice trail, Isaac ended up being carried--but no sir, not on this side. And we were rewarded with beautiful little Yacolt Falls. We had been about to turn around, Chris went just a bit further and heard the roar of water...so of course we kept going.

There was a fun little steel bridge to cross (well, Isaac didn't think it was fun, though Chris did coax him across on the way out). Apparently it's a drawbridge, I have no idea why.

There's actually two falls, split by the rocks--the one on the right is a little obscured by the maple tree, but it's the best I could do. You can hardly see Chris in this picture, he blends in nicely to the rocks!

Um, I promise even though some of these picture look a little dangerous, the boys were safe the entire time!

Everything Chris and I found online totally downplayed Yacolt Falls. We had no idea what it was when we found it: the only sign was one with Clark County park rules, nothing telling the name of the river or falls. However, we were all far more impressed with Yacolt Falls than with Moulton Falls! It is peak waterfall season right now, especially with all the rain we've had, so I guess it could be flowing a lot heavier than normal. We dug it though :)

Lucia Falls

The weather was so beautiful yesterday and since I had nothing planned, I decided the boys and I should get outside for awhile. Danny and Isaac are suckers for picnics and waterfalls, so they were easily convinced.

I had actually initially planned on heading out for the Middle Lewis River Falls loop hike, but it turns out it was a bit more of a drive than I'd anticipated, out in the boonies, and I'll admit, being by myself, with a 2- and 4-year-old in the middle of the woods kinda freaks me out; I decided to save that little hike for a time when Chris is with us.

We settled for just Lucia Falls; we'd been there before, but not for a couple years. It's a nice easy walk, the waterfall is pretty, there's lots of picnicking areas AND it's only about ten minutes away. I think Danny will probably be making us go back.

Proof that they were excited:

Isaac kept clapping and yelling, "Yay, waterfall!" but I didn't manage to get it on camera. It was pretty cute though.

One of the cool things about Lucia Falls is that there are a ton of rocky areas to scrabble around on. We didn't do too much, since I was alone with two kids, plus we had Zeus and of course I had these terrifying images of one of my kids plunging into the river and I. cannot. hardly. swim. Being there with Chris will make the rocks a little more fun, or when the kids get older. Danny did really well climbing around, Isaac of course needed a bit of help. Zeus was a pain in the ass. :)

Danny tried really hard to get Zeus to pose for a picture...this is the best I got. See? Pain. Isaac's butt is all wet b/c he promptly fell down in some mud first thing when we got there.

 

We finally managed to get our "hike" started; the falls is less than a quarter mile from the parking lot, so you see it immediately and the kids were very hard to pull away from it. The trail forks from the falls/picnic area; we walked the portion along the river first (the southern part), then the trail went uphill (north) slightly and looped back to rejoin at the falls again.

 

Issac didn't make it much past this point--maybe 1/3 of a mile?! I always bring the Ergo along on these outings, so he got plopped in there, and was perfectly content to be carried the rest of the hike. 

Poor Danny--probably 3/4 through the hike (it's only a mile), he got very tired and would have probably liked his own Ergo.

He was a trooper though, and finished up for me. We had to walk to the car and get our lunch; Danny was happy to wait back where I could see him, on a tree stump.

We ate lunch and then I let Danny have the camera the rest of the trip:

Danny said about the above picture: "The forest floor is really dirty, Mama."

This is "some very soft moss."

I love the two tree pictures. Gives you an idea of the sense of awe a little kid must feel, being so tiny is such a big place. Danny told me about these pictures: "The trees were so pretty." Awww....

And then Danny tried to take a picture of me and Zeus; Zeus was still uncooperative. But this kind of gives you an idea of the belly starting to emerge :) 

We had a fun trip though, I'd recommend this as a good little picnic and hike site for kids. I'm even planning on taking my grandparents next time they're here!

Mt. Hood inner-tubing

For over a month now, I have been dead set on heading to Mt. Hood to try out their inner-tube hills and rope tow. Normally I wouldn't be so lazy and insistent on having a rope tow, but with a two- and four-year-old, it made a lot more sense. I'm all about making life with small children easier (well...within reason....).

We'd finally settled on going New Year's Eve, and so headed out at 11:30 am this morning--only a half-hour behind schedule, which is miraculous for an outing of this magnitude for us! Chris had had to get up pretty early (for him) to buy chains, get an oil change and find waterproof mittens. I...was left to pack and not forget very important items (mittens? snacks? lots of snack? water bottles? cars? extra changes of everything? etc.)

And, before we left, probably around 10:30, I double-checked the Ski Bowl website--six inches of new snow and currently snowing, no road closures only 5 of 65 ski runs closed--good to go.

Hahahaha...fate, why did you hate us today? It rained, the entire way--which means that the roads were mostly fine (well, if you care for water spraying up from every passing car and standing water, but whatever, standard for where we live this time of year). And it was still raining when we finally found the tube hills.

Ok, no big deal, we're used to rain, it didn't seem to be affecting the snow too much. Then we find out, after  we head in, drop $50 on tickets and parking passes, that oh, the rope tow is broken today! They were generous enough to take $1 off our tickets--was that ok? And there was a $3 coupon for a return trip in January.

SERIOUSLY?!!? I checked your website! $1 off?!?! Grrrrrr.....

But I am too nice. Chris would have pitched a fit, had I permitted, but at that point, I was thinking, no, we've driven ninety minutes, the kids have been so excited for this--we'll just hoof it up and down the hill.

Oh, but wait. The little one? Too little. Only ages three and up allowed on the tube hills. There's a little hill at the foot of the big hill that you can let him slide down. Too bad our website didn't say that either.

Have fun!

So Chris took Danny up (and down) twice. Isaac and I played on the little hill. Then I took Danny up twice (oh my god, I was seeing stars on the second trip up, when I agreed to pull him--so glad I hadn't gone to the gym yesterday), while Chris played with Isaac on the little hill.

At this point, everyone was getting a bit...uh...frustrated? It was raining hard. And cold, of course. So we told the kids about the "kid zone" area, and they got excited to play in it, and Chris and I got excited to chug a beer and go down the hill a couple times alone (wait...I think it was only me that was excited for that).

The kid zone? Retarded. Seriously lame. And here I'd been under the impression that for $9 (or free with our purchased tubing tickets), there would be an adult employee in there supervising, but NO, we needed to stay. Scratch that beer.

So Chris carried Isaac back down the hill. Danny and I tubed down. And went to the car. A grand total of five runs down the hill for Danny.

We had brought the kids' new bear sleds (a present from Santa), so they tried those out quickly, and then came the changing. Oh, the changing. Oh, the wetness.

I am totally being cranky about all this, but both boys loved the tubing they did get to do, and despite the backdraws, we all did manage to enjoy the family time together. And Chris majorly impressed me with his snow driving (while the roads weren't bad, the parking lots were awful, full of huge chunks of ice and tons of snow and water)--we didn't even have to use the chains.

We didn't take many pictures--it was raining too much for me to risk taking the camera to the hill, but here are a few taken under shelter of the trunk :)

 

 

Isaac, crying, while I tried to get his soaking wet shoes and socks off.

Christmas shopping

I figured I better post something, just so the few people who read this will keep reading :) Grandma, Christa, and Courtney, that's you!

Of course things have been crazy, but not in a bad way. We're having fun, the kids are enjoying the Christmas season, my Christmas shopping is done...just some more baking and candy making, and lots and lots of family, and then the big day! I still look forward to Christmas just as much as I did when I was a kid. I may have a hard time sleeping Christmas Eve!

We had an unplanned weekend in Long Beach, due to a close family friend dying. Though the reason we made the trip was sad, it was a nice visit; we hadn't been down to visit Mom and Great-grandma and Papa for quite awhile and it happened to be a beautiful weekend down there (hehe, there was freezing rain and nasty ice at home!). So...the nice visiting with family made the trip better. Oh, and let's not forget Isaac's major, non-diaper blowout while eating out. I'll leave out the details; it's enough to know that he was not wearing a diaper, as he's using the toilet very well now. Use your imagination.

My grandparents were fantastic enough to come up and babysit the kids all Tuesday afternoon so that Chris and I could head to Portland for some Christmas shopping. Of course our first stop was Powells, one of my favorite places in the world. Amazingly, I made it out without a single book for myself! The very first time I've managed to do that, in fact. Then again, I had to have a little more self-control with all the books we bought for the kids; I just can't help it when I find things like Eric Carle's Treasury of Classic Stories for Children for $6.50; Olivia Forms a Band and Zen Shorts for $7.99 each (in hardback! brand spankin' new!). I had only gone in for A Child's Garden of Verses (which I also found used, even in the edition illustrated by Brian Wildsmith that I'd wanted) and Richard Scarry's Best Storybook Ever (not used, but only $15). I love Powells.

Both Chris and I really wanted sushi. We are not very adventurous with our sushi eating, usually. We like Eastland Sushi A LOT, and don't stray from it very often. However, there was a Sushi Land right up the street from Powells, with a sweet happy hour to boot, so we went. Which is unfortunate, because it was mediocre at best, and the Deschutes Brewery is right there, too, and I love their beer. And there were probably some rockin' winter ales on special. At least we only spent $22...

And then, the best discovery of the night! I have been hell bent on finding Isaac some cool bongos, and spent a good half hour before we left, making Chris do google searches, and calling various Portland stores to locate reasonably priced, but realistic (ie- not plastic crap) kids bongos. And I found them at Rhythm Traders, on sale for $35. The people were extremely helpful and friendly, and they let Chris and I play with every bongo and drum we could get our hands on before they closed. They had TONS of cool kids percussion instruments and noise makers, I could have spent a lot more than we did. In addition to the bongos, we bought Isaac a thunder tube--I hope we don't regret that! I will definitely be returning to this store (hopefully with Tracey, my best friend and a drummer, who would be in heaven, who hopefully will be located in Portland by June-ish).

On the way home, I made a mistake. I decided that we'd bought too many presents that weren't "toy" enough (which I'd purposely avoided, but...a kid's gotta have something to play with after opening presents, right?), so I made Chris stop at Toys R' Us at Jantzen Beach to buy a small Lego set for Danny (his major present is a fishing pole and tackle box...not too fun on Christmas morning, eh?). I seriously thought I may have an anxiety attack or seizure in there. Shouldn't be surprising how many kids have ADD when those are the toys they're being bought. I kinda felt dirty when we left. It was amazing the amounts of plastic shit (really, there's no better word for it...sometimes swearing is necessary) in there. Bikes to plug into your TV? Because who needs to go outside? Really? Un-freaking-believable. I've told myself many times in the past that I wouldn't shop at Toys R' Us anymore (I've had some very bad exchange and customer service experiences), yet I keep going back. Ugh. That was the last time. Maybe by publicly declaring it, I'll stick to it this time :)

So...this is a totally disjointed, random blog, and I am supposed to be packing to go to Walla Walla tomorrow and finishing up the package to mail to Chris' family in Tucson and getting some presents wrapped and finishing laundry--not drinking wine and writing on the blog :)