Algona Days was a fizzle

What a waste!!! The only fun thing about Algona Days was to people watch. The people of Algona/Pacific are...let's say interesting!!! Thank you Sharon and Nick for hanging out with me!!!!

I'm a rolling advertisement

Now, that I have this on back of my car I'm thinking of going to a .com!!!! I wish I would think things through before acting sometimes!!!!

I can't believe we made it!!!

Outing #2 was a bit more then I signed up for. Our plan was to hike to Sheep Lake....we found this hike in a "Child Friendly" hike book. I actually hiked this back in 1994. It's approxiamyly 4 miles round trip and fairly easy. As we drove up to Crystal the sun was out, not too hot and there was beautiful scenery to check out.

We even found this great waterfall right off the road!

As we began to get closer to our destination thick fog began to roll in, the temp had dropped severely and then when we got to the spot this is what we found....

Mid July and still this particular hike was not hike-able. Shifting gears is not always easy for me or for Cameron. We had thought that we were going to hike to Sheep lake and now we had to figure out something else to do. On our way back down the mountain Cameron spotted a trail and so we stopped. The start to the trail was beautiful....it has a wooden bridge and an amazing stream running right through it. Vicki asked two hikers how this hike was and they said, "it's a little steep!"

It was 6 miles round trip and I figured we would give it a try and if it was too hard we would go back.....

Well, we didn't turn around and we continued to hike up a very VERY VERY steep trail! To be honest a few times I totally wanted to quit and was hoping that Cameron or somebody would say they've had enough. Cameron only wanted to quit once and that's because we were all walking to slow for him....laughs!

Just after the half way mark they is a great view of the mountain....however, my camera didn't take the best picture!

Yes, this is a bathroom and Yes I used it. Once you get to the top there are 2 camping sites and this toilet by the lower lake....the upper lake was another .5 miles and the thought of pressing on at this point seemed impossible!

The lower Lake

There was snow the last .5 mile of the hike

and guess what we made it!!!!

Look how beautiful this is!!!!

As we were walking back down even Vicki was impressed that we all made it with how steep the trail was. My thighs and legs were still hurting 6 days later.

Going to see the Troll

Vicki, Cameron and I headed to Seattle to bike the Burke-Gilman trail. Cameron had never seen the troll so we locked our bikes up down below and walked up to check it out.

Not sure what was going on with Cameron today but he refused to let us take his picture.

I kept trying to secretly snap pictures and he just kept complaining and telling me to put it away.

I must have snapped 20 pictures and most of them looked like this with his back or head turned.

After the troll we rode to Gas Works Park and ate our lunch. It a strange park but the view of Seattle is breathtaking.

Cameron is becoming a great rider and is learning how to share the road. Vicki and I were both really proud of him.

Our next bike ride will be around Green Lake, I hope!!!!

Deception Pass

Summer is always a hectic time. It blows my mind how busy we get. I always think because I'm not working that I'm going to have all this time (8 extra hours) but it's not the case. I love having the time off but it just goes way too fast! At the beginning of the summer the three of us (Vicki, my mom and Me) sat with our calendars and planned out 4 outing days!!! Our first outing was to Deception Pass.

This place is beautiful!!!

We first started out by walking across the bridge....it was a little freaky when you looked down!

There is a bald eagle in this tree however you can't see it!!!

The view from the bridge was amazing

Love this picture.....wish I could have gotten a better angle on this picture but the railing and my butt got into the way.

After we walked across the bridge we hiked down to the water and had a picnic.

It was a great day!!!!

Happy 4th of July

With 4th of July being on a Sunday for our family it was a really low key day. After church we headed to my mom's for dinner and we invited the missionaries over.

Mom made YUMMY Bobby Flay burgers and

a delicious corn salad.

Then we went out did sparklers and a few other things I still had kicking around from last year.

That night we went to a friend of Vicki's and watched the Des Moines fireworks from their balcony. It was a lot of fun to be together, play cards and just hang out.

Intervention

Donna's show finally aired last month. It was really hard to watch knowing she's out actively using. On a lighter note it was really cool at the end to see our company on the rolling credits. Pretty cool!!!!!

We're driving home and it's a long one

I'm so behind on blogging.....here it is one month after my CA trip and I still haven't blogged about our trip home.

Cameron and I had a great time in CA and the ride home may have taken 16 hours but it was well worth it. We stopped at several rest stops to stretch our legs and

we stopped in Weed, CA to go to the Weed Store. They carry some of the funniest t-shirts, bumper stickers and more. I bought myself a Weed, CA magnet. Probably looks silly hanging on a drug and alcohol counselor's fridge.

Then in OR we stopped at Wilderness Safari. Cameron and I had a blast checking out all of the animals. We spent 2.5 hours there and it was well worth the $35!

Cameron very happy because he got to sit in the front seat as we drove through and started looking for the animals.

Then we hit major traffic in Portland and even got stuck on this draw bridge, "quick mom take my picture...this is my first time on a draw bridge!'