This is a great picture of the Blue Glacier and the summit!

I know those of you who have viewed my blog lately are going to

be sick of seeing all of these pictures of Olympus. (It was such an amazing trip)

This was climb down a wood ladder in an area where the trail had washed out.
It's me jumping over a crevasse.
All roped up and ready to cross the glacier

Hiking along the Hoh river trail

View of the Blue Glacier and peak on the middle right is the summit!! Here we come!

These are just a few of the photos from our Mt. Olympus trip. Mike, his brother Steve and I went on a 4 day journey to the top of Mt. Olympus. On Tuesday we woke up early and drove to the Hoh rainforest. We drove through the town of Forks which has been Twilightized. (ridiculous) anyway we began our hike through the Hoh rain forest 10.5 miles to Lewis Meadows to camp for the night. The next morning we woke up picked up camp and headed to Glacier Meadows about another 8 or so miles. We camped at Glacier Meadows for the second night and then at 3 am woke the next morning to get ready to summit Olympus. The hike to the summit and back down to Glacier Meadows took us about 12 hours. Talk about long day. It was totally worth it!! We crossed the Blue Glacier walking over several crevasses both small and large. To stand on top of the Mountain was amazing the view the weather it was breath taking. The scariest part of our trip was crossing back over the Blue Glacier. We had a later descent off the mountain than we had wanted to with the sun beating down on the glacier all morning and into the afternoon the glacier was melting. We had to speed walk across the glacier because you could see the water just below the surface of the ice. (Not to mention when Steve was leading us across you could hear the ice crunching under his crampons.) Once we got back into camp we ate took a 40 minute nap then headed back down to Lewis Meadows for the night. Mike and I got into camp at 11:30 that night. The next morning we woke up and hiked the rest of the way out of the Hoh. Man was I glad to see the car and wash off before our drive home.

Yesterday as I was putting Ava to bed I walked in her room and noticed scissors on the floor and Dora's had a new hair cut. I began to pick up the fragments of Dora's cut hair and then began to notice blond hair also. I told Ava she was not allowed to cut her dolls hair and where was the Barbie who had her cut also. Ava said "I didn't cut a Barbie's hair. Then I began to look even closer at Ava's hair and sure enough she had cut her own hair. I new I thought something looked different about her hair yesterday. I told Mike what our daughter had done and asked Ava where was daddy when you did this? She responded with in his room asleep! So hence Ava now has a new hair cut. She wanted to look like the little girl down the street. Thank goodness she doesn't have bangs and tried experimenting on them.

Aahhh! They do love each other!!! This past Sunday we spent a nice sunny and lazy day at Brenda's house. Mike and I napped in the yard while the kids played outside. The kids had so much fun on the swing this day. Mike was such a good sport swinging them and taking some good pictures too.

This memorial day weekend Mike and I took the kids to Zion's camp and spent a night camping and playing with the Hoisington cousins. That night Uncle Steve has all the kids attention around the camp fire as he told them scary stories around the camp fire. A lot of the kids got pretty scared but thank goodness they played really hard all day because falling asleep was not an issue.

Mike climbing to new heights!!!!

Mike took a turn at the Pinnacle. It was his first time rock climbing.

He made it about half way up and his fear for heights kicked in....and

there was no getting him to climb higher

Brushing up on Rock climbing skills!!!!

It's been about 15+ years since my last attempt to rock climb. I wasn't sure how I would do considering I weight a lot more now than I did back in high school. So for $7 at REI downtown Seattle you can climb the large Pinnacle. (This is the one featured on the Bachelor last season.) They provide the harness, shoes and professional belayer. You can choose from a variety of different levels. I chose the straight up and not too technical route. I was surprised at how quick I took to it and easy it was. I had a lot of fun.

My little fashionista in the making!!! One of Ava's favorite things to do during the day is play "Fashion". "Fashion" usually consists of Ava hiding in my closet trying on different styles of my shoes. Once she has found a pair she wants to wear for awhile she emerges from the closet and then spends hours sometimes even the rest of the day walking around the house in my shoes or boots. She has asked me on several occasions if she can have some of my shoes when her feet get as big as mine. I tell her to be careful what she asks for. Size 9 1/2 - 10 is not sooo pretty.

Mike and I went for an overnight backpack trip up to Mt. Ellinor this past week. Rylen had spring break so Grandma watched the kids. (Thank you grandma) The weather was on our side for our trip. We took our split boards with the hopes of snowboarding off the mountain the next day. We had a long hike up the road just to get to the trail head. Because of all the snow and cold weather late in the season most of the road was still blocked with snow. It was fun despite how hard parts of the journey was. We skinned up the road to the switch backs where we then hiked for a little while until we encountered some deep snow. We then put back on our split boards and skinned as far up the chute that we could. From there it was all straight up hill. Kick step. Kick step to the top. We made it to camp after 7.5 hours of hiking, and climbing. We were sooo tired and hungry. We set up camp and ate some food then snuggled in for a good sleep. During the night the wind and snow picked up but we were warm and cozy in our 1 person tent. Which served plenty of room for the two of us. The next morning we ate breakfast and began our journey down the mountain. We tried to snowboard down the chute but it was sheer hard snow and ice from the harsh winds the night before. We mostly scraped our way down the mountain until the switch backs. It was night to get up in the mountains with just Mike and I. It has been awhile for just the two of us to be alone.

Up the road to the trail head.

Cutting up through the trail. Not an easy short cut.
Gear change.

Mike hiking up the switch backs
Strike a pose!
Mike's turn to strike a pose!
One more angle from the top of the chute.

Straight up the chute!
How much further? We had been climbing for 6.5 hours already.
Kick step. Kick, kick, step.

The top of the Mountain
Snuggled in the tent, ready to go to sleep!!
This is what the wind and snow did to our tent over night!! A bit chilly!

A nice day at a park by the Hood Canal bridge!!

Mike, the kids and I were spending the weekend in Port Orchard a couple of weeks ago and decided to take advantage of a sunny afternoon and go to a park by the Hood Canal bridge. We had a lot of fun playing on the swings and playing pirates on the toy ship with the kids. I am so glad Mike still has such a great imagination.

Ava and I swinging on the swing. Mike loves to push us high and scare us.

Rylen flying like a super hero!
Ava sitting pretty for the camera.

Great time at Jump and Play!!! Mike and I took the kids to Jump and Play while we were in Spokane. (Jeanine came also and drove us....thank you) The kids had a blast! They were able to run off extra energy and got nice and tired for the rest of the day. Thank you Trista for inviting us to come along. It provided a great excuse to be able to hang out with you and get caught up a little bit. I still would have loved more time to hang out.