Mt. Hood, part 2

On one day, after I had done my morning trail run to Mirror Lake (2 miles up, 2 miles down!), the boys wanted to come home early so we could go into Portland.  Mitchell wanted to check out the well known Burnside skate park.  I also needed to buy more books since the 2 books I brought I had devoured on the drive there.

When we arrived to Portland, we quickly realized trying to find parking in the middle of downtown was going to be impossible.  Well, free parking that is.  I made Kevin pull into a $7 pay to park lot.  This was really hard for him.  He was raised to be frugal!!  But we made Mitchell pay for it because he was the whole reason we were trying to find parking.

When we walked up to Burnside, we realized this was no normal skate park; it was a scare park.  Some  weirdos threw a rock at us when we walked up.  I just glared at them.  Yeah, It probably scared them.

You should have seen the people that were here.  One homeless looking guy was sitting in a car seat and yelling "BUUUURRNNNSSSIDE!" the entire time.  A group of skaters were passing a joint around.  An eight year old girl (or so) was drinking a beer and trying to make her dog drink it (who wouldn't).  Everyone looked haggard and life-less.  

They were all incredibly good skaters though.  All the boys were completely impressed.  When Kevin saw the park and saw the skaters, he put down his board and very seriously said "I am not skating that."  It made me laugh.  Mitchell skated it and did pretty good.  It was a humbling experience for him though, since he is normally the best skater in any park here.

We then found a Barnes & Noble nearby which was in a mall.  Yes, I got four boys to go into a mall with me.  It was a spectacular scene.  Such good sports. 

The view at Mirror Lake.

I found a mini-pinecone on my run.

On the Burnside Bridge.

This alone scared me.

There goes Mitchell!

The boys watching in awww.

Mt. Hood, part 1

Kevin really wanted to go to Mt. Hood this summer to ski. I'm always up for an adventure so I told him lets do it! We invited Kevin's two younger brothers and Kevin's employee Peter. It was a total Dude trip, but I promised I wouldn't cramp their style and I'd also make them dinner every night.
They happily obliged.
This was how the schedule went every day: Boys would wake up at 8. They would eat cereal, come wake me up and then I would drive them up the canyon. I would drop them off and head back home. I would then go on a trail run up to Mirror Lake, or run around the campground. I would then wipe down with some baby wipes (the joy of camping) and get ready for the day. I would then read outside in the sun, get tired, and usually take a nap before the boys called me again around 2 to come pick them up. We would then eat lunch and then do whatever activity we wanted for the rest of the day. It was bliss for me, and bliss for the boys. We were a good team.
It went so well we decided this will be an annual tradition.
Who wants to come next year?

Right when we drove into Hood River, OR, we had to pull off and watch the kite boarders  for a while.   We were so excited to be in Oregon, it was beautiful.

Our little campsite.  My in-laws let us borrow this for the trip.  It was heaven!  It had a king sized bed, a queen sized bed, and then two other beds.  It also had plenty of storage, a sink and a stove.  It made camping 5 days easy-peasy.  

Our first view of Mt. Hood.

The boys would hang all their ski clothes out to dry every afternoon.

Our campsite was right by this beautiful creek.  The sound of it put us to sleep every night.

Since this creek was run-off from the glacier, it was freezing.  So it was a perfect cooler for our drinks, orange juice and milk.

The shower.  I did take a shower in this bad boy once.  It was cold!  But it felt so good and I even shaved my legs.    This was camping in style my friends.