Hands on children's museum

Today we went to the museum. The kids had a blast, so did we. The displays are amazing. It is a place you can get lost in for hours.

Seattle aquarium

We took Nicole Hailey Dayna Devin Layla Adelyn MADI Lori and Bart to the aquarium . It was an incredibly fun time! The kids loved it so did we. My highlight was watching the kids have so much fun. We then had seafood and went home! It is so fun being together. It would be nice to all be together as a family but it gets hard when we get spread out.

Christmas Eve

Our traditional nativity scene. I don't know where this tradition started but we do it every year as we read the Christmas story.

Christmas party

We had our party this year at anthonies. It was fun. We are very fortunate to have such an incredible staff!

Tree hunting we came across 2 corn people.

Lena lake

Pretty hike. Here is the lake and a log bridge. This is in the Hama Hama area.

Mt rose

8th trip to the summit. Nice cold day sunny, hike up was nice then about 3500 ft patches of snow. At the top it was very overcast. I changed to dry shirt. Out of no where wind came up and pea size round flakes of snow came down. Almost immediately the ground was covered. I started back down and the snow level increased to about two inches. I had crampons thank goodness. I made down to 2500ft where snow stopped. It was a different world there. For me a peaceful and beautiful one. These are the pictures before the. I got out of there and headed down when snow stared. I have never seen snow so heavy so fast.

Daddy daughter date

Nicole and I went to staircase rapids and hiked 4.6 miles along the stunning skocomish river. The river roars the falls and rapids are amazing. It was a lightly rainy day autumn leaves everywhere. The rain forest is coming to life. The water falls down the rocks making countless waterfalls. We crossed streams climbed over rocks it was lots of fun. We have great equipment stayed dry. What would a hike be without hot chocolate. Water is ice cold and as clean to drink as you could find.

Mount rose 11/2/12

Winter is coming the rain is falling. This is when the rain forest comes alive. The trees turn into a deep green the ravines once empty have water. Since mount rose is a cone shaped mountain I wondered where all the water comes from. There is no snow. I hiked around and saw it first hand. The ground cover has an unbelievable ability to hold water. The ground cover is fed by trees shrubs etc. I watched that happen from a beautiful vantage point. A hill of clover like plants sloping down. You could see water flow across the tops of this ground carpet. They dripped into small streams then into bigger and bigger ones. At the base of the mountain we have a large stream. This picture is the result of all if the life on the mountain. There are many streams on mt rosé now. It tastes good and ice cold.

Smiling's my favorite!

Wagon wheel

This is the left front foot of a cougar. There were several other prints in dirt that were better but not photographic... Also a picture of the trail. I did not go to the top due to the snow...also because of the tracks....

Lattins cider mill

It was a lot of fun. The apple fritters there are incredible.

Mount Rose....again

You would think I only know of one hike. It was beautiful today no rain minimal wind. The small streams that have been empty now have water. I couldn't figure out where that water came from. There is no snow on the mountain. As I walked along I could see lots of water dripping down from. Beautiful land cover. In one place you could see. The water running down the green carpet like icicles then running off into a small stream. Wow. It was amazing.

Mount Rose 10/12/12

A beautiful day. Sun at times covered clouds. Sitting on the summit I watched the clouds roll in below me. It was an awesome sight. I just took several pictures of the trees. It was an amazing day!!! This year I climbed Mt Rose 4 times. Wagon wheel twice and mt Elsinore. I made it to the summit this time in 2 hours and 1.5 down with. 30 lb pack. I getting ready for Mt Rainier next year. Gearing up for snow shoeing....

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