Cape Horn.

We hiked the Cape Horn trail, which is a beautiful hike on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge.  It was a 5 mile hike and mostly down hill, with a few miles of rocky trails which made it a little more challenging.

The main view point was at the beginning of the hike, within the first mile.  This is all of the kids, except for Brittany’s youngest (on her back)

A caterpillar!

These two!

These views were really amazing!  But scary to have children around because they were such sheer drops to death.

Hattie is so happy in these pictures!  She’s an incredibly good sport to stay in the pack for so long, with very few breaks to get out and wiggle.

These rocks were tough—there were a few miles of them!  And this is where Elna kind of decided she’d had it—understandably so!  We obviously had to keep going!

Ian and Elna.

This was a fun group to hike with!  Dulsanna and her Ian on the left, Angie and Cody in the middle behind Elna, and Brittany on the far right with her 4 kids spread around.  It was a ton of fun, but it might be a hike I choose to do without children next time.  Between carrying 30 lbs (Hattie) on my back and helping Elna be happy, it wasn’t the easiest hike for me, but certainly worth it for the incredible views and fun friends!

Hattie starts nursery!

This deserves it’s own post, right?

These first two pictures are actually from the week before her first real week of nursery.  They had the youth teaching in nursery so that the leaders could come to a special Sunday School lesson.  Elna wasn’t a fan of all of the young men who came in to help, so we had to take her out, and Hattie decided to stay.  A big surprise!  I couldn’t see it lasting very long, so I stayed to watch through the blackout window and she did pretty well.  She sat reverently during the lesson, and then she refused to eat her snacks (what?!) and this cute priest, Reed was trying to get her to eat it.  He was very persistent, but Hattie refused, and kept this expression the entire time.  It was funny to watch.  Soon after this she lost it and we took her out—she lasted only about a half hour.

This was from her actual first day of nursery.

And this was from the next week.  I guess I should stop taking pictures, but when they hold hands and walk to nursery together it’s kind of hard to resist.  I’m so glad Elna’s in there with her!

Lacamas Lake.

Getting ready to hike with friends!

Buds!

Brave girl!

The whole group:  Ladies (left to right) Me, Angie, Tina, Stacy, and Mandy—plus our kids.

Cody, Elna, and Andrew.

Playing with my camera.

Hattie was looking at the flag in our front yard (that was put there for September 11)  The first picture is so typical of her—when I get my camera out she says “cheese” and this is what her face does—a cheesy grin and squinty eyes.

In twenty years my children will probably get mad at me and wonder why they never had any clothes on.  They really like being clothes-less, and when we’re home it doesn’t feel worth putting up a fight about it, so they usually get their way.

They love to dance!

Some day I will really figure out how to use my camera!  Hopefully before my cute models have left the house!

Labor Day.

Labor Day morning we went to breakfast with Brian’s parents and brother.

Hattie was having a blast with her Papa!

Later that afternoon we went down to the river:

Elna loved pulling us around and we loved it even more probably!

I love holidays!