Nice Butte!

A little attempt at humor in the title...if you have seen "Cars" you'll get it! We spent part of our afternoon hiking to the top of Pilot Butte. It was a nice little walk. The weather was amazing today--almost 70 degrees. The sun was shining and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. We were able to see all the mountains that surround the town, including Mt. Hood. It is 92 miles away, but we could see it very clearly! It was a fun afternoon. Izzy even caught a lizard. There was a cute little park at the trailhead, too. Top it all off with a slurpee, and life doesn't get much better. When we stopped at 7-Eleven, I was pretty excited to see that they have Pepsi slurpees here. Yum! I was in heaven!

Me and the kids with the Three Sisters and Broken Top behind us.

This is at the top of the butte to help identify all the peaks.

Luke and I loving the sunshine!

Izzy was playing on one of those things that spin around, and I caught her at just the right moment.

Mt. Washington on the left; Mt. Hood on the right.

Apple Bars

These apple bars taste just like my mom's apple crisp...yummy! Autumn is hands down my favorite season, and what is more autumn than apples?

1/2 C all-purpose flour
1/2 C whole wheat flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 C brown sugar
1 C rolled oats
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 pinch ground cloves (optional)
1/2 C butter
3 C apples, peeled and sliced
1/4 C sugar

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a 7x11 baking dish. Mix flour, salt, and soda together in a bowl. Add brown sugar, oats, and spices. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Spread half of the crumb mixture in the pan. Top with apples and sprinkle with sugar. Spread remaining crumb mixture evenly over apples. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes. Cool and cut into bars. Serve warm or cold.

Lava River Cave

We spent part of our morning yesterday at the Lava River Cave. It's a mile-long lava tube just down the road from our place. It was awesome!

150 steps down!

A wall in the cave...nothing mind-blowing, I just thought it looked cool.

Luke, Izzy, Dylan, and Stella checking out the end of the cave. We wanted to keep going, but we would have had to inch along on our hands and knees. No thanks!

I just snapped this from the front (passenger) seat of the car on our way home. It's nice to see tall trees instead of tall buildings :)





The weekend ended up being a little overcast and rainy--perfect weather for homemade brownies and games. We taught the kids how to play Settlers of Catan today and they loved it!

12

Twelve candles? What happened to my tiny girl? I guess she's all grown up! Happy birthday, Izzy--we love you!

Before you know it...

it will be time to shop for Christmas gifts. Here's a great place to get the cutest earrings ever!

My cousin Lori makes all of the earrings by hand. They are amazing! She was so sweet to give me a couple pair before we left for Oregon, and I absolutely love them. I get complemented all the time! Click here to check them out.

Tumalo Falls

We have looked at a lot of pictures of Tumalo Falls on the computer, and today we finally got to go! It was a beautiful day; sunny with just enough cloud cover to make it nice.

We attempted to geo-cache, so we had to cross Tumalo Creek. We were bushwhacking in manzanita that was about six feet high. Needless to say, me and the kids gave up and let Luke go find the cache alone. He finally found it, but when we met up with him on the trail, his legs were bleeding. Yikes!

Dylan found a little trail that took us right down to the waterfall. Of course, the boys wanted to get right underneath the water. It was loud. And very wet!

It was a much cooler hike on the way up the trail for Bucky. Apparently, Izzy thought it was hysterical! (click on the photo for a closer look)

Just a few more...

I know, I know. Enough with the farmer's market photos. But I couldn't help myself!