Adventures at Table Rock

Amid the bustle of moving preparations and house purchasing, we have been making an effort to get out and enjoy our last days in Oregon. We have LOVED the beautiful nature we've been able to explore while here. In fact, Ben and I were recently reflecting on how little we know of downtown Portland, but how much we know of the surrounding wilderness and outdoor recreation. In fact, we both agree that going into the city stresses us out and we dislike it. Although there are fun things about Portland, we don't like the crowds, the inevitable traffic, or the difficulty parking. An evaluation of how we have spent our time while living here definitely shows that we are country mice, not urbanites.

On one of our recent outings, we took advantage of a rare sunny day to hike in the Molalla wilderness on a trail called Table Rock. Ben had done the entire eight mile trail before, but our objective this specific day was only to get outside, hike a bit, and build a campfire ("and cook s'mores"- Nayeli's request). Because so much of the land in our area is privately owned for farming, one must drive to public land to make a campfire. In this case, we had to go out an hour and twenty minutes, but it was definitely worth it.

Ben took the challenge of building a fire very seriously:

He splintered the wood before we began to hike.

Nayeli is just starting to get too big to carry, so we tried her out walking on this hike. We hadn't been on the trail more than two minutes before she was saying, "I'm tired. Carry me mama". We just had to keep distracting her with treasure hunts and such so she didn't realize that she was hiking. 

Oregon forests are just stunning 

We hiked up until snow covered the trail and made it difficult to continue. By then we were ready for lunch and a campfire, so we found a clearing and went to business.

Ben has commented how difficult it is to make a fire here since all the wood is so wet. I think he felt his manliness was in jeopardy if he didn't get the fire started. 

Teddy helping Ben blow 

 We have fire!

We ate lunch and cooked s'mores over our campfire, then cleaned up and hiked back down. It was a fun little adventure with our family, and we had a great time. 

Fir Point Farms

A friend recently commented that I haven't been posting as many pictures on social media of our family on Saturday adventures. That's because, ever since we made the decision in August for Ben to go back to school, he has devoted every Saturday to studying for the GMAT. That leaves me as a GMAT widow and although I am adventurous, I am not as likely to take the kids on adventures by myself. However one Saturday in October Ben stopped studying a 4pm and we took the kids to a local pumpkin patch.

This boy. Pumpkins everywhere and all he wanted to do is splash in the puddles.

Cute Nayeli picking a pumpkin

There were games and a train ride at the farm, but when I went in to buy tickets at 4:45pm, they told me they were closing at 5. We were bummed, but they gave us a bag of cider donuts that were going to be thrown away and told us to come back again. So we ate donuts and the kids splashed in puddles. It wasn't such a bust after all.

We purchased a few pumpkins and took them home to paint them. After all the issues Teddy has had with knives lately there was no way we were going to carve them.

We returned to the pumpkin patch a few weeks later. Ben was going to be gone on a business trip for the weekend, so he took off the Thursday beforehand to go with us.

I dream of having a home with a tire swing someday

Teddy was not as excited as Nayeli about the tire swing

We also went to pet the animals. The goats were a favorite.

Inside the hazelnut house, or filberts, as they call them here

By the time we had explored much of the farm, three school buses full of excited Kindergartners arrived. As you can imagine, it quickly became too chaotic for our family so we looked for a more secluded place. Ben remembered seeing a sign at a trail head down into the ravine behind the farm. The sign read, "Farm Trail- enter at your own risk!" Nothing that could deter us! Adventure is out there!

The way was steep, wet and muddy but we had a great time. It was quiet and beautiful, and we loved exploring the make-shift path and bridges that someone had put in them self.

She got herself dressed. Pink, pink and more pink.

She told Ben, "I'm going to make a cute face". Mission accomplished.

Oregon is so stunningly lush and green- I will miss it so much when we leave.

It was such a fun day at the pumpkin patch and so nice to have some time with Ben. The kids and I have sure missed him lately, but soon the GMAT will be over and then life will get back to normal. We look forward to more Saturday (or in this case Thursday) adventures all together.

July Happenings

July is such a fun month. Sunny, long days, BBQs, fireworks, adventures, and vacations make for such a fun time. Here's a bit of what we were up to during the month:

I bought firecrackers from the dollar store and learned never to do that again. They were all duds, except for the poppers. They worked great and the kids loved them.

 Trying to ignite the "snakes" without success

More than once I filled all the buckets and toys on the porch with water and let the kids play outside in their underwear. When it's hot and you don't have a yard but you don't want to leave home, you get creative.

Nayeli has started to insist on what she wears, and if it is clean, she unfailingly chooses her Minnie Mouse shirt (seen under her ballet outfit below). She's also chosen to wear her tutu and Cinderella heels out and about on numerous occasions.

Every Friday we attend a playgroup with other women and kids in our ward. One week it was at a great playground and splash pad, but it only took a few minutes for my kids to find a nearby stream. Suddenly it had captured all their attention and it was as if the playgroup didn't exist.

Did I ever mention he could say "stick" before "mama"? Really.

Collecting rocks and sticks is more tantalizing than an expensive playground any day.

One morning we discovered a crew cutting branches off the trees just outside our window and feeding them into a grinder. The kids were fascinated and it provided an hour of free entertainment.

Our biggest adventure in July was hiking the Opal Creek Wilderness. Ben had wanted to check out the area for future scout trips and he finally talked me into it. I was hesitant because it was going to be a long hike for our family (over 6 miles), but he assured me that it wouldn't be a big deal.

This leads me to explain a little about hikes and adventures with Ben. He always says they won't be a big deal, and his track record is about 80/20. Eighty percent of the time it isn't a big deal and we have a great time, but twenty percent of the time it ends up being difficult or scary and I end up crying and upset. As I've analyzed this, I've come to understand that Ben's level of adventure tolerance is much higher than mine. Plus he is in much better physical shape. So really, something that isn't a big deal to him can easily be a big deal to me. I have to remind myself that his intentions are good and he only wants our family to have a good time. Having said that in his defense, I have to be honest and say that this hike had all the makings to be one of those "twenty percent hikes". Luckily the ending was a happy one, and I'll explain why in a moment.

We stopped at Salmon Falls on our way to the trail head. Ben insisted on jumping from the rock ledge into the water while the kids played in the water. He is such a crack up.

Nature's playground is the best kind, isn't it?

See him? He jumped off twice, just to get some energy out and because, "I just have to." 

We then drove up to the trail head, loaded the kids in our packs and started hiking. We were all crabby until we ate lunch and the kids got to hike on their own for a bit. Then the hike went better. We ended up in a town called Jawbone Flats, Oregon, population 12. It's an old logging/mining town that was abandoned and has since been converted into a summer camp area. It's the greatest thing though because they left all the old equipment, stoves, cars... it felt like a ghost town.

Climbing on the old cars

 

 Old mining carts

This row of old cars was my favorite. 

We passed through the town and after awhile, we finally reached the Opal Pools. They were beautiful pools that formed as the water rushed down a canyon, but initially I didn't care. I was pretty upset that the pools were all surrounded by jagged rocks and large cliffs on all sides. For two toddlers that were ready to be let free to play, it was a death trap. And after hiking three miles with a kid on my back, all I wanted to do was relax. I kind of freaked out to Ben and he took over. He found a decently safe place for the kids to play and let me rest. He really does try to make all our adventures a positive experience for me. Another example: although he was carrying the heavier child, he let me have the better backpack on the hike. He's really great like that.

Opal Creek Falls

The kids played in the water for a bit and then Ben decided he had to jump off one of the cliffs into the pools (apparently jumping twice off the other cliffs earlier in the day wasn't enough ;) ). He jumped about 20 feet down into the biggest pool, and no, I didn't get a picture of it because I was making sure my kids didn't go tumbling off of one of the cliffs as well. I felt so relieved when we finally packed up and left.

The hike home was peaceful and I had time to calm down. The kids both slept in their packs and Ben and I talked as we hiked. It was drizzling rain and the forest was just beautiful. This was definitely one excursion where the journey was better than the destination, although the pools were beautiful. I just wouldn't ever go back with small kids.

Sweet Teddy napping on the way down.

We finished the hike with very sore backs and hips, but having felt like we had a really good day. A LONG day, but a good one. And we even finished with smiles on our faces, so I guess you can say it was a success.

Hiking selfie!