Family Vacation Blog # 4

Our entry to the heart of Seattle.  I kept singing the beginning of the Frazier theme song throughout the trek up to our current destination. lol

Why does Jesse like to make wierd faces for the camera? lol

The Space Needle!

Hello!  Kyle wouldn't play along very well. 

That's me on the right getting soaked by the fridged water that was spouting out. BRRR!  Jess over there on the left thought it was quite funny.

Look at this cool pig around Pike Place!

You can barely tell, but there are jelly fish in the water!

Marcy wanted her picture taken with this guy. lol

In this picture, Jesse reminds me of our cousin Johnny.

This picture was taken by Ivar's.  What a great local place to eat! The sea gull in the picture caught that fry in mid air!

A metalic tree I found interesting.
On our next day of adventure, we went to Multnomah Falls. It's somewhere I've never been before either, so my family and I got to discover a new place together.

along the creek that comes from the falls we saw fish swiming everywhere!

Marcy and Jess taking a break along the trail up to the bridge that spans the fall.

A neat little cave along past the bridge! We thought we'd go all the way up to the top, but tired 3/4 of the way up.  Next time, Marcy says we WILL walk all the way up.

I wanted to get a good picture of Marcy and Jess up on the bridge to take home and show Mom. She said this place a gorgeuos.

A little closer pic.

And an even closer one.
After our fun at Multnomah Falls, we walked around Portland. 

I made Marcy grab that salmon from the bear.  I thought it'd make a funny picture. lol She was kind of embarrassed, but complied. lol!  We still laugh about this.

Family Vacation Blog #3

On one of our days together in the North West, my family, Kyle, and myself went to Mt. St. Helens.What an awesome day it was!

We were standing in front of a house was near completion before the devestating eruption of 1980.

Here are a few pictures of the house, before and after.

Big Foot!

As we came farther up the mountain, we could see more and more signs of the fury this now timid volcano has released not so long ago.

Here we are by a stump that is a reminder of the power of the mountain. The rest of the tree was blown away by the sheer force of the exploding giant.

Within the Johnston Ridge Center, you can learn alot about the mountain from it's explosive past to how it's fairing today.

This was a demonstration of how far the explosion went.

Marcy, Jess, and Kyle. Beind them is a stump they enclosed within the Center.

Sadly, on this foggy day there was little visibility of the mountain. 

We all had a great time anyway.

A woman was kind enough to tall us a little about the vegetation on the Mountain, and also invite to take our picture.

Behind a ridge, one can see Spirit Lake.

If you look close enough, you can see a speck on the trail.  That's Marcy and Jess. We wanted to all go see where those trails led, but were too scared we'd fall off the sides somehow.

There they are!

Within all the photos I sent back home with my family, I gave them this one as well. It was a photo I had taken actually two weeks before they had come out.  Mom thought this was a beautiful picture.  Next time my family comes out, I hope they get a view like this one.   

Family Vacation Blog # 2

Next stop was the beach. Marcy has been over the Atlantic ocean a few times, but has never got to touch it. So this is both of their's first time touching an ocean. We went to Longbeach, WA first. I was kinda bummed because it was so foggy on our way there. It was so foggy we couldn't see the huge 4 mile long bridge spanning the Columbia River when we were right by it. Driving on it, we couldn't see a boat or even the river it's self!

This is not long afer we got off the bridge. You can see in the background the heavy fog. I want to stop by this lil church someday and tour it. It just looks cool to me.

A lil while later we finally arrived at Longbeach. It was still foggy but later cleared up a bit. We decided to have a great time any way.

After I took this pic, the waves washed it away. You can see the wave starting to come that washed it all away.

This was a pic Jesse wanted me to take. He really liked the sea gulls. His favorite thing was to chase them and feed'em.

Jesse really had a great time at the beach. He never wanted to let on like he was, but he didn't hide it well. I knew this would be one of his favorite places.

Who can go to Longbeach and not go say hi to Jake at Marshe's Free Museum?

Next stop was Seaside, OR. This is actually where I first saw the ocean. We wandered from shop to shop, bought a few things, then ate at Pig N' Pancake. The beer battered fish n' chips and clam chowder are great! We then made our way up the street to the sign below. While here, we saw the first jelly fish the fam or I had ever seen! I kind of freaked out fearing they were everywhere. I was the furthest one out so that added to me kind of freaking out. lol I wish I took a pic of it, but being out in the ocean I don't think it's a good idea to have electronics. :)

This statue is of Lewis and Clark. It was the end of the line of the expedition here and the statue marks that as a memorial.


When I saw Elvis, I told Marcy we needed to take a pic of her with him. We know a lady who is in love with Elvis name Anita. I told Marcy to go back home and show this to her and say 'Eat your heart out Anita, He's mine.' lol

This is on the side of the Seaside Aquarium. Bellow is the sign explaining what's behind them.

This is one of my favorite pictures of the whole trip. I love Jesse's face. Every time I see it I smile.

The family and I by the ocean.

This was on the boardwalk. We were having so much fun It was getting ready to be a heavy rain and it was time to go. The winds were picking up, hitting us in the face, and clung to our soaked legs and feet as you can tell. lol

Family Vacation Blog #1

So last week my family came out for the first time to the Pacific N.W. This has been something I've been excited about for a long time. We had a lot of fun and it was great being the 'native' instead of the other way around. I felt like a tour guide spouting out factoids and pointing out features. It was great to show off all the things I love about living out here and letting them meet a few of my friends and people I've come to know as my N.W. family. I spent almost every night staying up late talking to my sister. It was great to talk to her in person and joke around like we use to. It was also great to see how grown up my nephew is getting and hanging out with him. He was the hardest thing about moving out here because he's always looked up to me. I just don't want to lose the positive influence I've tried to have in his life and I miss hanging out with him. He's more like a little bro than a nephew.



So here's the family and I at Wake Robin. (from left to right) Marcy, Jesse, and myself. This was their first taste of a North Western woods which I can tell you is a lot different from what we have back in Indiana.

Marcy was shocked at how HUGE the ferns grow around here.. and how many there are in number.

This is a snail we found on the trail.

Jesse and the snail. (sounds like a children's book)

Craig and Katy. Craig looks startled or disgusted.. not sure. He's just making faces though. We went with them to Wake Robin too. lol

In this creek is a random table looking thing. I think this creek is named Mill Creek.