Washington State Vacation - Day 6

After the game night, in the wee hours of the morning, we went in to check on Jasmine and this is what we found...thought it would be a good illustration of sleeping in the heat!Our last day with our dear friends was a good one and a HOT one! We decided that if it was going to be hot, we were going to go and find the snow. Luckily, you could do that in Washington and we headed for the mountain so that we could check out the ski lodge and see some snow. We were also hoping it would be cooler up there.After a 45 minute or so drive, we were there. While it was a bit cooler and there were people going up the mountain for skiing and snowboarding, the snow wasn't close enough to the lodge for us to be able to play in and walk in it like I had hoped. It was OK because the view was incredible.We decided to take a tour of the lodge, which reminded me a lot of something you would see in the movies. It was classic ski lodge and very nice. Here are some of the details I took pics of...Jasmine was acting tired and moody so when it was time to try and get a family photo, she wasn't having it. When Jill wanted one with her kids, Ryan wasn't having it so I just took one of her and Sarah.We headed down off the mountain and then went and ate lunch and back to pack our things as we were going to have to go back to Portland for the night because our flights were early the next morning.
We didn't want to leave until after dinner but it was so hot that we decided to go back to Dog Creek and let the kids and ourselves play in the cool water. It was a great way to cool off.We went out for pizza together and then had to say our goodbyes. Jeff finally got to hold Ava and so I had to take a pic of that!We sure do love the Child family and miss them enormously. Our vacation was so great and so what we needed as a family. It was very sad to have to say goodbye for now but we hope we see our friends again very soon!

Washington State Vacation - Day 5

Since we were in Washington during the biggest heatwave they have had in years - maybe ever recorded, we tried to find fun and cool things to do away from the non-air-conditioned house that we were all staying in.
Jill packed a picnic for us and we headed to a beautiful park near a pretty stream of ice cold water - too cold to even wade in. The kids had a great time. It was fun to watch Ryan and Jasmine play together and get along so well. Ryan felt protective of Jasmine and often would try and defend her if she got in trouble with us. It was cute to watch.After watching the kids play and taking fun pictures of them, we sat down to enjoy a delicious picnic feast that Jill had brought for us, complete with ice cold watermelon. As it was so hot out, I let Ava suck on a piece and she absolutely loved it.Jill also brought all kinds of fun bubble toys for the kids to play with and they ran around popping and blowing bubbles to their heart's content.After lunch, we decided to let the kids nap in the car while we took a drive to survey the beautiful scenery of Washington - here are a few things we saw on our drive. The mountain was beautiful but also I was surprised to see Buffalo...After our drive, we picked up Jeff who got to leave early to hang out with us and we did what I want to call the Waterfall tour of 2009 - along the Columbia Gorge. It was amazing. I love waterfalls, the power of the falling water is amazing and I also think they are beautiful.
We started with Horsetail Falls, which looks like its name sake. It falls into a beautiful pool of water that was perfect for a hot day. Many people were gathered there for a swim and we waded in the water a bit - it wasn't super cold and it felt good as it was so very hot. Did I mention the heatwave? :)The kids had fun throwing rocks into the water and putting their feet in to cool off. Those kids are so darn cute - I can't get enough of them.Before we went on to the next waterfall, I had to get some good pics of the family and such - the lighting was good and the day was amazing!The next stop was Multnomah Falls - it too was very beautiful and different from Horsetail Falls. We walked up to the bridge and took it all in and just loved it.The last one we went to was called Latourel Falls. It was also breathtaking. The waterfall seems to fall straight out of the sky and you can walk right up to it. It is amazing to be so close to a waterfall, you can feel the spray of the water and the power of it. We finally got our group shot here and it is amazing we could get one so good.Jeff made reservations that evening for a fine dinner on the town and even though I can't remember the name of the restaurant, I do remember the food was really good. It was nice to sit and eat dinner together in a cool restaurant and enjoy fine food and friendship.After dinner - we went back to the Child house and put the kiddies to bed. We then sat down to one of our favorite things to do as a couples group - play Sequence. It was loads of fun and Jill even remember to have the Peanut M&Ms...love that family...