Summer Trip 2008, Part 3, The Final Crusade

We didn’t do much exciting that final Saturday we were there. We did start getting ready to come home! Then we headed out Sunday morning. Our first stop was at one of the Mount St. Helen’s visitors’ centers. I believe it was called the Forest Learning Center. They had a great little museum/hands-on-learning part as well as what we were told was a great view of Mt. St. Helen’s. We wouldn’t know about that part–it was cloudy and wet that morning and we couldn’t see much at all.

They had a model of the whole Mount St. Helens area with a logger train running through it that the boys really liked watching. This was also where they could sit inside a helicopter and pretend to soar above the volcano.

Then Ricky got booted out so some adult man could have a turn. Geez! (Yep, that’s Kevin!)

This place also had a playground. We hung out a while letting the boys play hoping that the sky would clear, but it never did.

This slide came out of a volcano and Ricky thought it was really cool!

This is what we should have seen, if the clouds had cleared.

When we finally gave up on seeing the volcano, we drove on and had to stop at this small street side tourist trap. But who wouldn’t want their picture taken next to a huge statue of Bigfoot?!

Ricky saw that Bigfoot really does have big feet!

Then we went on to Portland where we visited with my cousin Sarah and her husband John at Mt. Tudor Park where they were spending the afternoon skateboarding with friends for John’s birthday. The boys had a lot of fun riding on the long boards. We left our camera in the car–bummer, because they were awfully cute!

After Portland we stopped at Multnomah Falls, due to Sarah’s suggestion. It was a really pretty waterfall right off the freeway. Billy thinks water and especially waterfalls are really exciting and gets very smiley and talkative when we get close by. Then he holds his breath as the spray gets him in the face.

People all around us were eating this yummy looking ice cream cones, so we gave in and got a couple. The boys LOVED that even more than the waterfall! Go figure!

We were tired that night and only made it as far as The Dalles, Oregon before bedding down for the night. Monday we were on our way with a lot of road to cover. We stopped several times and tried to find parks for the boys to get some exercise. In La Grande, Oregon we found a beautiful one to each lunch at. The community had all chipped in and it had a huge playground. Ricky made a little friend and as we were leaving I told him to say b-bye to his friend, so he said, “B-bye, friend.” The little boy said, “My name is Cameron” and Ricky said, “Okay. B-bye, Cameron.” Then he was sad in the car that he had to say good-bye to his friend. He’s so sweet.

Speaking of sweet, I guess if you don’t give your child enough treats while driving, they have to lick the salt and sugar off their treat bowl . . .

And when both boys finally fell asleep, we were very thankful. It just didn’t last long enough!

We finally made it home about 10 or 10:30 that night. As tired as the boys were, they were so excited to see their toys that they had to play for a while before we could even think about putting them to bed. And our cats–they were thankful to have warm bodies to sleep on that night!

It was a wonderful vacation and we saw so many interesting and fun things. But if you asked me today, next time we’ll fly!!