Mirror Lake with the Ernsts

At the beginning of March my niece Eliza got married in Utah and almost all my family was going to be at the wedding. In fact the only ones that weren't going to be there was myself and my sister Emily who also lives here in Oregon. Since Emily and I both disliked the idea of everyone getting together and leaving us out (FOMO alert), we decided to plan a fun Saturday together on the day of the wedding.

We scheduled a Saturday and met in Hood River, Oregon. Hood River is a really fun town in the gorge situated right on the Columbia River. It has a similar feel to Park City- it's touristy and hippie but has a relaxed vibe that makes it endearing. Emily and clan stayed Friday night in a hotel right on the Columbia, then we drove out on Saturday morning. The hotel pool happened to overlook the river so we played in the pool and sat in the hot tub and relaxed. It was awesome.

We then drove toward Mt. Hood to hike up to Mirror Lake. It was fun to chat on our hike and although it was a longer hike than we anticipated (and Nayeli cried most of the way up) it was worth it.

 The pretty reflection of Mt. Hood in the lake (which I didn't even notice until I saw a picture of it AFTER we had hiked down. One of my more blonde moments, I must say).

The Ernst Family. It's so fun to have them living in Oregon with us!

Ben always brings a knife from work on our adventures and takes a few minutes to shoot some photos whenever there is beautiful scenery. He uses the photos in his marketing at work (you can see his blog post about it here). Some of his stuff is really good  and I especially liked this photo. He does a great job for having no formal photography training.

I call this "The Baby and the Mountain".

My busy boy

After our hike we went to a campground to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. We had to group picture, although Gabe was asleep in the car. We decided to just tell him that he wasn't born yet :)

Ben whittling, Darren making a goofy face, Emily and Ellie smiling, Nayeli not looking at the camera... the accuracy of how this photo reflects personalities is almost spooky :)

Teddy is so busy and gets into everything so I contained him by feeding him dinner in his stroller. Problem solved!

I love my sister Emily. She is so fun to be around and I'm so happy she lives close.

No matter how old I get, I'll always love a hot dog roasted over a fire. 

We finished the night with two tired kids but great memories. I am so happy to have Emily and her family nearby, and we decided that we need to get together more often. Stay tuned for more adventures!