Month: August 2012

Happy Birthday Mylon. For your birthday, I Snuka-flied the Blue Hole 17 times. The water was great – cold but great.

“Don’t look down ‘ was the advice the Ranger gave us. He also said the ruins were created by Aliens and some of the sections were used for prisons. This bear was on the road at 2AM. We watched him for about 15 minutes before he ran into the woods.

The ladders. Someone needs to bring in a bunch of spider monkeys and see how much fun they have.

Glad they finally had some supporting structures to ease my mind when following a speedy 3 year old.

Did I mention the attention span of Ezra. At this point he was being entertained by a young student from France who was making faces and Ezra was imitating. Obviously, the French have a small attention span as well.

The rest after the Balcony House.

The 32 foot laddder. Not recommend for young children. Viena did spectacular. Dwana did great. Ezra was wonderful. I was a wreck, especially up 25 feet following behind Ezra and Ezra moving fast – just like the monkeybars. My heartrate was about 120 bpm after climbing the ladder.

Waiting for the Balcony House Ruins in the shade.

The tour last about an hour. Ezra’s attention span was about a minute.

Ezra wondering where the ladder is going.

Viena was the second youngest on the tour – you can guess the first.

Ezra was enjoying playing in the ancient Indian playground.

Which one of these are not like the others?

Ranger led tour. We were the first tour of the morning. Cool dwellings

Ezra had a great day. Ezra really grew up today. All that playground monkeybar experience came in handy today.

Ruins on the mesa. We saw a fox and a coyote.

Drove through the night. Saw a bear as we entered the park.

Sandy Arch. Lots of sand. Lots of shade. Perfect for a sunset walk. Might even be able to set up a sand volleyball net.

Rosy Cheeks and Big Hair. Near the end of the day, both Ezra and Viena were exhausted and Dwana and I were not far behind.

Beautiful day. Beautiful place. Beautiful girl.

Delicate Arch. Hot day. Beautiful park.

Ezra and Lucas on the scoot bike. James and Foley on the Tall Bike. Viena on two feet.

As we visited James, he was having withdrawal symptoms from not participating in the Burning Man festival. So we tried to find time to do crazy stuff like ride around town on some tall bikes. In the background is one of his creations that he took to Burning man last year. Easy to ride. Difficult to Mount and dismount.

A man-made drop into a hole of the Boise River. I tried about 4 times before the River accepted me and for an eternity I laid on a boogie board in front gallons of rushing water going nowhere. You had to jump at the “waterfall” at an angle and the current would either place you in front of the rushing water and hold you or the current would spit you out and send you down the river. After finishing my heart rate was about 120 bpm. I wish I would have had a life vest, helmet and boogie strap. People just hang out here all day long. Where would you hang out in 100 degree heat?

James with Lucas on the Extracycle with car-seat. We were able to bike through the city and along the Boise River.

We parked the van in Boise and unloaded the bikes. The drive through Eastern Oregon was through the night. The waxing moon led the way.

Ezra and Viena wrestling on the trampoline in Bend Oregon. What would the world be like without Trampolines ans swimming pools? … and someone to wrestle with.

I took this picture moments before I entered the pacific ocean for the first time in 4 moons. A chilling re-entry to the West. I was going to catch 44 waves with the boogie board, but they were so nice I decided to count each wave with a magnitude 10 factor.

A perfect place to rest our heads after a full day. The big dipper resting right above our heads.

Uncle Joe’s front yard. Ezra and Viena had fun playing with the cousin Derrick who is a month younger, a foot taller, and a stride faster than Viena’s.

You can guess that all three had a wonderful time playing together. We played hide and go seek, tag and looked out onto the waters of West Sequim bay watching a seal in the harbor.

Uncle Joe and Aunt Nancy’s yard had many play areas including a tree with a wasp nest.

Blessed is the day, TODAY!

We finally made the escape from Montana. We found an old abandoned sewage tunnel that was only half full. Ezra and Viena had no problem navigating the waters. We are in Idaho now breathing fresh Idahoian Air. Feels nice. Our van is breathing much easier now as well. So far the air conditioning has worked climbing all the mountain passes. Pacific Ocean here we come.

Ezra loves this photo. Ezra also loves running around late at night after he has had a nap and the rest of us are ready for bed. Ezra was trying to climb down from a high chair and slipped and hit his bottom chin on the hard chair seat sending his tooth through his tongue. All while Dwana and I were feet away trying to decide the next place to rest our head. Maybe we need to go back to safe isolated Montana and have Ezra suck on a Glacier. “I’m OK Mom!” Ezra says. And he is OK.

Early morning on the high line trail.

We had a great start to the month of August. We woke up in our campground at sunrise and the good thing – no bears around. We drove a half mile to the Free Bus shuttle parking lot that takes us up to the 6,646 foot Logan Pass. I was going to park in the area that would be in shade in the afternoon near the trees, but decided not to when I looked closer and saw that a black bear was rolling around in the forest greener right 10 feet from where I was going to park. We decided to unload Ezra, Viena, Dad-Dad and Granma and the food right next shuttle. The parking lot attendant said we had a good excuse. We were first in line for the 7:00AM shuttle up to Logan Pass. The ride up “Going to the Sun” road is crazy amazing – like flying in a small plane low through the mountains. The road is partly under new construction, and has been for years, which is why the Park started using the shuttle system – which works great, but some say is scheduled to end once the construction ends in 5 years. Hopefully, the shuttles will be around next time we are in Glacier. We arrived at the pass just as the sun was rising over the tall mountain peaks. We quickly started climbing the large wooded steps up to the snow. We came this time to Logan Pass with a purpose. I brought along two inflatables to sled down the remaining snow. After performing a test run by myself, I convinced Dwana, Ezra and Viena to join in on the reindeer fun. The snow was great and fast and produced many smiles and the laughter. Afterwards we celebrated with huckleberry snowcones that we created right on the spot. The curious Mountain Goat (Sepak) on the nearby ridge almost came down to join us. Large Marmots and Large Ravens also kept close quarters as we churned and churned our refreshing drinks on the snow underneath the majestic mountains and August morning sunshine.

A great place to sled on the first on August.

We love this campground.

What is the fun of sledding if you are not going to flip?

We quenched our thirst with huckleberry snowcones on the Hidden Lake Trail. The trail ironically was closed a half mile ahead due to a Bear who was eating huckleberries near the trail?

WHO NEEDS A GO PRO?

Patrick Cote’s photo in the Daily Inter Lake thursday identified the handcyclist as U.S. Air Force veteran Steve Taylor. Today’s adventure started early as a race to be first in line at the Apgar Transit Center since the first shuttle bus was scheduled to depart at 7am and we missed the one the day before by about 5 minutes. As we pulled into the closest parking spot …wait wait …wait a minute! There’s a big black bear right there! Let Dad Dad get out and go get us first in line for the shuttle and I’ll drive our group up to where the bus stops. Shortly, the shuttle bus arrives; the bus fills to capacity; the bus waits for the bear to cross the road; and the bus departs as express-non stop to the top. Destination: LOGAN PASS. Time: 6:58 am. Off to a good start. Hooray! As the early morning sun began to make shadows there appeared to

sECONDS aNYONE?