The Last Days

I was not ready to send my kids back to school. So we partied up until the last day that they had to go back. Two days before school started I took Timmy, Bethany, Sam, Ben, and a couple of their friends to the zoo.

We always love our trips to the zoo. The Oregon zoo has great habitats and the animals are usually pretty active and fun to look at.

Sam, Bethany, Kaimi, Stephen, and Timmy.

While we were at the zoo Andy took Scott, Matthew and their friends William and Keiji to the Ape Caves. Andy has never been to the upper ape caves so we decided it was probably his turn to go and I could stay home with the younger kids. I was a little sad that I had the camera so Andy couldn't take any pictures but the boys said they had a really good time and that someone had actually put a rope in at the big lava fall so it wasn't as hard to climb.

One more day! What to do? We decided to finish out our summer hiking with friends. My friend Aaron, Shareen and her kids came with us to a place called June Lake. It's up by Mt. St. Helens and after you hike the 1 1/4 mile you are supposed to be able to wade in the lake but when we got there this is what we found.

A little waterfall going into a very murky pond, full of bugs! Yuck! That is not something I want to wade in. I think we waited too late in the season to go. Oh well the kids made the best of it and played on the rocks and had a good time looking at the scenery.

Timmy

Matthew

Bethany

Brevin, Scott, Bethany, Matthew, Timmy, and Sam

Timmy, Matthew, Sam, and Grandma with Mt. St. Helens in the background.

It was such a warm day that we decided to stop at Merwin Dam on the way home and let the kids go swimming. I didn't have any swimming suits but my kids didn't care. We blew up our little raft and all got soaked! It felt so good after a hot hike and was a great way to end our summer vacation!