Monday, April 2, 2012

Elowah Falls/Upper McCord Creek Falls




Dear Friends and Family,

We live in paradise.  Sometimes I look at the photos like these and just wonder at our good fortune to live surrounded by such beauty. 

It has been a long, long time since I've written on this blog.  Life has fallen into a pattern of busy days at work and full evenings preparing for the next day.  I rarely pull out my nice camera - most photos these days are snapped on my phone.  We have settled into the little house and our new ward (no calling for me - yet).   I am still loving my job - there is much to learn every day and the steady flow of patients means it is never boring.  I have a wonderful boss and am so grateful to be employed and supporting us again.

This week my parent have been in town watching the children over spring break and visiting with us one last time before departing on their mission to Portugal at the end of the month.  We will miss them so much, but are so excited for them as well.  

On Monday last week, I took Mom and Dad and my nephew Soren on a new hike up in the gorge.  The guidebooks said it was easy and I guess it is because it is not that long overall.  The trail is uphill though with some steep switchbacks so just be warned.  We took things slow and had a gloriously sunny day to enjoy the views.


  

The photo at the top of this post is Elowah Falls - gorgeous, and also wet.  We crossed the bridge at the base twice effectively soaking both sides of our bodies.  This is a view of the same falls from above as we took another trail to Upper McCord Falls.


The hike to Upper McCord brought us along this amazing path that follows a cliff around the mountain.  The trail is muddy as water is constantly dripping off the cliff above.  The views of the river are stunning.  You will have to walk one person at a time as the trail is not very wide.

 
 

Upper McCord Falls - much larger in person and the trail ends right above the falls.

 
 
 

When we had reached the final leg of the descent, Sophie realized she had dropped her ipod shuffle somewhere along the way which meant the two of us got to hike the trail again in search of it.  Luckily before we reached the cliffs, we ran into some hikers who had found her ipod and told us where they had wrapped it around a tree branch.  Crisis averted.
 
 
  
 
 

I am going to try to become better at recording our adventures here.  I miss having this record of our lives and I miss all of you! 

6 comments:

  1. I'm so excited that you're back on the blog! Very glad things are going well and that everyone seems happy and healthy.

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    1. Thank you! I am going to try and get caught up. This is really the only journal I keep these days!

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  2. You certainly live surrounded by beauty! Hope you had a great time with your parents and they have a wonderful mission! Portugal would be so fun!!! Hang in there with work, kids, and life. You can do it!!! :o)

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  3. Beautiful! And glad everything's going well. The mission sounds really exciting. I think about going again all the time lately.

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  4. I think how beautiful it is there every time I see your pictures... and now Rachael's too. How long will your parent's be serving for? They are soooo adventurous and I admire that.

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  5. Oooooh! I'm so happy to see you're writing and posting pix on your blog! I have missed seeing your children's pictures (and yours, too!)

    the northwest is so beautiful. I'm so happy for all of you that you are enjoying it!

    Love, Aunt Barb

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