Mt. St. Helens with the Ramptons

This has been a month of exposure to Mt. St. Helens. We summited the mountain last Thursday was Lisa, Taylor, and my dad. It was really hard work. Little Jasper was quite a trooper. He barely complained, except for a few little meltdowns. We had him in the ergo carrier for almost ten hours. The whole last half up the mountain, Rob had him zipped up inside his windbreaker since it was so windy and cold on top. Poor little fellow. He probably felt like we had stuffed him back into the womb. The mountain was incredible, though. All the ash and lava rock were pretty cool. The first third of the hike you are in beautiful, woodland forest. The second third, you scramble up boulders of volcanic rock. The last third, you trek through the scree stuff ( a mix of little rocks and ash) which is REALLY hard! The last third took more time than the first two combined. We kinda feel like we were walking up a very large sand dune. The top was sort of clouded over but it still was amazing to be standing on the crater rim and looking down into a freshly blown out volcano. I highly recommend this hike to anyone in good physical shape and who loves a good mountain challenge.

Embarking

Woodland forest

Point at which hiking permits are required, where you leave the forest and begin scrambling



My dad

My dad on the snow with Rob

Jasper reading

My dad used to tell us these bedtime stories when we were kids about these three triplets called good baby, bad baby, and baby si-di. Good baby never cried and was a perfectly happy baby. Bad baby was always getting into trouble, crying, fighting, and hitting. Baby si-di came out with a computer, calculator, books, and saying "what took you so long mom" and spewing numbers and math problems. They were wonderful stories that conjured up all kinds of imaginative images in my kid brain. There was nothing better than falling asleep after a baby si-di story and a song from my dad's guitar.

Anyway, I kinda think Jasper is my little baby si-di.

He's pretty much a genius, reading good old Spot books. Way to make Uncle Bobby proud. He used to LOVE these books. I remember him begging me to read him Spot books.

Trips to Corvallis this summer

I've taken a few trips down to Corvallis this summer. There's a few from Daniel Dodge's wedding, building Wildcat Park, my grandma's 99th birthday, Oregon Coast, and hanging out with Marcus's wife, Becca, and their two kids, Eliza and Jack.

Mt. St. Helen's with the Brooks

A few weeks ago, Rob's sister Elena and her family (husband Matt, and four kids) came out to Seattle to visit! It was so much fun. We had a great time with them and they saw a ton of the Seattle sights. We accompanied them to many of the sights including The Lockes, Golden Gardens tie pools, Discovery Park lighthouse, Woodland Park Zoo, Pike Place market, Camp Long rocking climbing, our awesome apartment, and our perfect p-patch!! One night, all the kids slept over and we had a really fun slumber party. We made cookies and played Pirate's Cove (thanks to our friends the Moshers).

As they were driving out from Utah, we met up with them at Mt. St. Helens. This mountain is incredible (I'll post more about that later since we hiked it last week). We went to the North side, which is the blast zone, and hiked around quite a bit. There is a very unique beauty all around this monument. The new life that is springing up and growing up through the ashes and rock is really awe inspiring. Here are some photos of the mountain:

The Brooks family

(you can actually see smoke coming out of the crater)

Beaver dam!!