Crater Lake

We have lived in Southern Oregon for just over a year now and for the entire last year we've had plans to visit Crater Lake National Park, which we are lucky enough to live just a couple hours away from. Crater Lake is a lake formed at the top of a volcanic caldera. On the way up we made a few stops at some other geological sights formed by the volcano eruption 7,000 years ago.

Mill Creek Falls

A lava cave near the natural lava rock bridge on the river. The lava once flowed here carving out caves and natural bridges, blowholes and uniquely sculpted rocks. Now the water from the river flows here underneath a large "bridge" made of lava, which is really like a big long hollowed out tube of lava rock. It was really neat to imagine the water was lava to see how it all happened.

A gorge carved out once by flowing lava.

The gorge was beautiful.

Hayden has been really interested in geology and geography for a while now, and since moving to Oregon, he has tried to learn everything he can about volcanoes. This made for a fun little trip, as he's been DYING to get to go visit one of the volcanoes since we've moved here. While at Crater Lake he did his Junior Ranger's packet.  Most National Parks have a Junior Ranger's program which is really great for kids. They have a booklet for the kids with activities and different ways for them to learn all about the park. If they finish a certain amount of it they get a sticker and then a badge).  We were lucky enough to be there at a good time for him to take a Junior Ranger's learning "class" where he learned from a hands on activity all about how a one-man submarine was airlifted in to Crater Lake so they could find out just how deep it really was, do tests, take pictures, and learn more about it.

Hayden finding things that may or may not be found in the lake, learning whether or not they belong there, and if they are organic or inorganic.

Hayden found a snake! - The other item he picked up with his robot submarine claws was a set of car keys. She told us last summer a car was left in park, but their break was not put on. After they got their kids out of the car and shut the doors, the dog which was left in the car started jumping around and knocked the car in to neutral and the car rolled over the very steep edge, 1,000 feet down. They had to lift the car out with a helicopter, which was more like a rolled up ball of metal and hardly looked like a car at all! After she told this story I started to wonder if I had put my break on, as that is something I keep forgetting the last few weeks!

Here is a picture of the car I found online! WOW!

Here is Hayden receiving his Junior Ranger's badge! After this he officially got sworn in as an Official Junior Park Ranger of Crater Lake National Natl. Park! It's really cute how they make such a big deal of it at every park to keep the kids interested.

Okay- more about the lake!  The water in Crater Lake is supplied purely by large amounts of snowfall and rainwater and that's it. Apparently it is extremely rare for a volcano to erupt and leave a perfect crater with no low point for water to escape. The color of the water is the most beautiful shade of blue. We went in the bright sunny afternoon when the color is mostly washed out from the brightness. On top of that we've had lots of wildfires in the area, so there was a little bit of haze lingering, but even with all that, it was so incredibly beautiful, I couldn't stop looking down at the color of the water.

May Roundup

May was a pretty busy month for us and I finally started to notice that I'd been neglecting my camera so I took a lot of photos this month! During May we celebrated our 8 year wedding anniversary, Mother's day, Hayden had soccer games every Saturday, Memorial Day, and lots of gardening.

I didn't take any pictures from our Anniversary or Mother's day, but they were a lot of fun. For our Anniversary date Dirk and I left the babysitter with the kids pretty early so we had hours to wander around town, visiting stores without kids, going to a garden fair, etc. We found some very yummy dinner, had ice cream at Cold Stone, then finished off the date by going to "Avengers" at the theater! It was a nice, relaxing, and kid-less day. Perfect. **My little niece Ollie Shae was also born on our anniversary to my sister Sarah! I have yet to meet her, but she sure is a cutie in all the pictures I've seen :)

For Mother's Day, Dirk spoiled me. He secretly planned with my friend (who does not have kids, therefor it would be fair for her), to have her take me out all day on Saturday. We left in the morning, went to brunch, spent the day in Ashland window shopping and just having fun. I wasn't allowed to come home until after the kids were in bed, and I had spending money too! I came home to clean toilets/bathrooms, and a candle-lit dinner! It was really nice! Then on Sunday I got the yummy breakfast and cards and gifts from the kids and a wonderful day at church.

A couple notes from facebook:

"Just had to call poison control for the second time this week. My kids have a death wish!"

"Day 1 of no artificial food coloring in our house went pretty well! I just need to find a way to get my family to drink water w/out needing to use Crystal Light!!"      - We quit eating artificial colors to see if they would help us with some behavior problems for Hayden. Not only did this help Hayden tremendously, but it also helped both Dirk and I have fewer headaches, and Dirk's depression levels were much lower. We decided to stick with it and we are so happy we made this decision in our life! Getting rid of artificial colors has made it pretty easy to get rid of artificial flavors and preservatives as well. Just one step further in our healthy diets! 

Lots and Lots of slugs here in Oregon. Hayden thinks they're fascinating!

Hayden's first time playing on a team- Kindersoccer! It was a blast and can't wait for a full season next year!

We had a polynesian/Americana Memorial Day BBQ at our house.

April Roundup

In April we worked on potty-training Ginny (so she ran around bottom-less a lot), had Easter, lots of spring flowers, warm enough weather to play in the water and lots of outdoor playtime.

A few out-takes from facebook:

"Ginny just ran in to the sliding glass door while trying to come inside. I guess she gets her gracefulness from me!"

"If I ever need Ginny to sit still for a long period of time. I think I'll just give her a pile of sugar snap peas to shell and eat. She very meticulously gets the peas out and says the shell is, "blah ducky.""

Hayden being insanely loveable! 

 

March Roundup

Apparently not much happened in March... Or I just didn't take that many photos... Photos are pretty much the only way I journal what's going on in our life, so I hope I didn't miss anything important!  I may pull in some stuff from facebook posts, as I was much more active there during this time.

 So in March-  Our pretty flowers started blooming.
We got a big (for Oregon) snow storm.

 

 St. Patrick's day happened and all I have to show for our awesome day is this leprechaun trap Hayden built. In the morning he found a piece of gold left behind by the leprechaun.   Here is my facebook status from this day:  "I hate Lucky Charms cereal! What a horrible idea to put marshmallows in cereal. What kid doesn't just pull all the marshmallows out and leave the rest? For this reason, I only buy it once a year, for St. Patty's day. This morning, Hayden found the box while we were trying to sleep in a little, and dumped it out in big piles in the play room and ate all the marshmallows out of it!!"

Other things to share from facebook updates during March:

"Just ordered our zombie apocalypse emergency survival kit! Can't wait for it to get here!" - I bought a ton of stuff for our 72hr go bags and home emergency preparedness!

"While I was on the phone, Ginny just put her shoes on by herself, took the bar lock out of the sliding glass door, unlocked the handle lock, opened the door, and walked outside. This girl is trouble!"

"Ginny scares me. She's not afraid of Dirk no matter how he disciplines her. He scares Hayden and I've always been able to use the "just wait until Dad gets home...", but with Ginny, she just giggles when she gets in trouble!"

"So Ginny is 2yrs old and she really doesn't say very many words. I've sort of started to worry and wonder if this is okay (as Hayden was a very early talker), but now I think she's just stubborn and doesn't want to talk. The words she does say are very clear, and just now she opens her bedroom door and yells over and over, very clearly, "Dirk Neill.... Dirk Neill"... With a tone of voice like he's in trouble! The little stinker!"

"Hayden just counted to 1,000 WHILE walking in circles in the kitchen." - This was hilarious. I was cleaning the kitchen and made sure he didn't skip a single number. I have no idea how he did not fall down on the floor and vomit when he was done! I was dizzy just watching him!

"Spring break in Bend, OR... not my first choice, but hey- I'll take it... especially since we're getting paid to be here :)" - Dirk interrupted my super awesome 2nd day of potty-training Ginny to tell me he had to spend a couple days in Bend for work and we had about 2hrs to decide if we were going with him. As a result- we spent a very cold and windy spring break in Bend, Or... but hey- we got paid to be there! While there we found a really AMAZING bounce house place for the kids where they spent hours playing.
 
And that's about it!