We went camping up at Ensign Ranch last weekend. Kirk had Friday off and we couldn't waste it! Kirk wanted to fish the Yakima canyon on the way. We dropped him off with his pontoon after driving up that morning. The kids and I did a little hike, had lunch and rode bikes around a paved trail at one of the fishing spots. We picked Kirk up and packed again. When we saw him he had a fish to show the kids and they liked that. We drove up to Ensign Ranch and found our cabin. We stayed in the bunk house. We had never been up there before. It is a church-owned camp. It has a lake, canoes, horses, hiking trails, a climbing wall, cabins and lots of stuff. We had dinner and went for a walk around the camp. The next day we let Cade and Cami go for a ride on the horses and a bike ride around the lake. Then we packed up and went for a canoe ride. Cami didn't want to go at first, but Cade thought it was awesome! Cami joined them for the last 5 minutes before the place closed up and then we drove home. Cami and Ellie slept most of the way home. We had dinner at home and built a fire in our backyard. I wanted to roast marshmallows on our trip, but it was way too windy. It was fun. Cade enjoyed roasting them but didn't like to eat them. Cami liked them uncooked, but then at the end she tried a warm one and thought it was the best thing ever. They are so fun right now. They get excited about everything and kept saying how we had a fun trip and they wanted to go again and again. Cade's favorite things were the canoe ride and when he spotted a deer at the parking lot. Cami loved the horse ride. She thought it was awesome to be up so high and kept asking if she was taller than Daddy or a polar bear or our house.
Cami's falls
Cami has been tripping a lot lately. In 4 days she bloodied herself 5 times. 2 from tripping while walking, a bike crash and something else. I am constantly reminding her to be careful and go slow. The bike crash was the worst one. She fell and ended up crying while walking the rest of the way home. I washed her knee and she just cried. She was upset and ended up wetting her pants on the chair. Then she fell asleep on the couch while I was cleaning it up. Poor girl.
Columbia River Gorge
Kirk had a conference in Seattle Thursday and Friday this week. The office was closed which means Melissa had those days off. We headed down to the gorge. I thought she would love seeing something new and different. The forest down there is so unique and beautiful. It gets a lot of rain and is very green and beautiful. We drove down Thursday morning and got there about 11:00. Our first hike was Waclella Falls. It is about 2.7 miles round trip. The kids did great and didn't hardly complain. It started raining just as we got to the falls so we didn't stay very long. Our next stop was the fish hatchery to see giant sturgeon and have a snack. Then we hit the old scenic highway to show Melissa some of the most popular waterfalls. We saw Horsetail Falls, Multnomah falls (and hiked to the bridge) and then hiked to Wahkeena Falls. Cami took a little nap in the car. Ellie slept off and on all day in the backpack, car and bjorn. We hiked almost 4 miles all together. We stayed at the KOA that night. After dinner Melissa and I didn't want to build a fire and so we walked around the camp ground and Cade and Cami decided we should have a couple of talent shows on our porch.
Friday morning we woke up, played a bit and packed up. We hiked to upper horsetail falls which was a new one for me. It was very pretty. Cami had a hard time making it up all the switchbacks. The trail was pretty and went behind the waterfall. The other hike we did today was Elowah falls and it was my favorite. It was tall and thin with an awesome rock wall around it. The kids did great on the hike but Cami was getting pretty tired by then end. It started raining as we got to the end. Those 2 hikes were a total of 4 miles today. We decided to drive home. Cade would have loved to hike more, but the girls were done and the weather was getting worse. It was a fun trip and we are so glad that Melissa could go with us. I couldn't have done it without her.
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| Upper Horsetail Falls |
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| Elowah Falls |
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