our beautiful gifford pinchot

this past sunday we took a day trip out to gifford pinchot national forest. it's my favorite place to explore. this time, we drove east along the columbia gorge, headed north towards mt. adams, and then back west through the forest following forestry roads, going past the ice caves and many old lava flows from mt. st. helens.

at the foot of mt. adams, we pulled over to eat our lunches by a stream we found. so i took a few pictures and soon realized that i forgot to charge the batteries on my camera before leaving that day. it died shortly after this first stop. i tried not to be too upset, but i did miss out on so many beautiful pictures of mt. adams, the changing colors of the leaves in the forest, mt. st. helens, and pictures of the kids enjoying it all. but here's what i did get: damian's backside. haha.

everyone's hungry!

not the most flattering shot, but here's a picture of how big my tummy is getting:

our stream:
after driving a while longer with my camera off, i was able to get a couple pictures at goose lake:

and, go figure, the only deer we saw was at a gas station. :)

my view from the top

hm, maybe i should paint my toe nails... anyway, this is my view lately. it's funny that sam is down there. he usually is, but the unusual part is that i can't typically see him so i'm always tripping over him.

on a side note: maddie just looked at this and asked, "is that your fat belly? that's pretty gross." thanks mad. ;)

our maddie

this picture is great, in my opinion. it sums up our little maddie quite well. she's one of the only girls i know who will wrestle with the boys in a pink tutu. this was taken a moment before she clobbered noel with the soccer ball.

trouble times two

as much as i like it when the kids are quietly playing together in their rooms, usually it means that they're up to something that i'm going to have to clean up.

it's hard to tell, but that's not just one layer of diapers and toys. the crib is about 1/3 full of anything they could find in the room to throw in there.

goofing around @ the park

here are some pictures from the other day at the park. madeline wanted me to get a picture of her going down the slide. so here she is, miss madeline:

followed by a very daring noel:

at this point, dame had to join in on the fun:

and after everyone else got to go, i figured i'd take a turn too. i barely squeezed myself through the opening at the top.

anyway, here are a few more pictures of the kids (and by kids, i'm including dame) goofing off & having fun.

mr. naughty noel

proof that i REALLY need to keep a better eye on my kids:

the kids were playing out back, i was inside, and i hear maddie yell, "MOM! noel is being naughty!" okay, okay, i'm coming. "no, come now! he's up on the ladder!"

apparently, the ladder wasn't brought in after cleaning the windows the other day. how was i to know? ;)

ha'way the lads!