Summer Fun at Mt. Rainier

Or Mountain Reindeer as it is known at our house. We told our kids Saturday morning we were going to go hiking in a mountain and seriously I think Marshall was so excited he could have peed his pants.





















So this week I really tried to focus on fun stuff for the kids since I can just feel the end of July creeping on me and I have been away for so much of our summer. So we did tons of fun stuff this week. My favorites were Emma's birthday swim party at the YMCA with her girl friends. (on Wed, yes 2 weeks late, but that's how its been) and a trip up to Mt Rainier. We went to Sunrise and went on the Sourdough trail that looped into the wonderland trail back to the Visitor's Center. It was a 3.7 mile hike that was awesome. We saw a little bit of everything and there was so much to look at to keep the kids interested at every turn. It did take us 5 hours for that amount, but we took our time and let the kids explore.

We saw great views of Mt. Rainier, Mt. Adams, a glacier lake, meadows with wildflowers, creeks, trees, we watched clouds swirl around the mountain, and a raging river. It was so much fun really. The kids' highlights were their first glissading experience. there was a snow bank we were hiking down and Ryan couldn't resist going off the one with a pretty much straight shot down. The kids thought it looked like so much fun so we found them a spot that was less trecherous that Ryan could stand at the bottom to catch them. They were so proud of themselves. It was cute. They had their own packs with plenty of water and snacks they could eat in their own time. I think the snacks really help the morale of the troops.

On the way down we found a spot where you could cross over the White river. Seriously this was freaky helping our kids cross this precarious little bridge. We really had a great time spending all our attention on each other and this really great place we can enjoy. Plus as a bonus, for some reason it was get into the park free weekend. I don't know why and we didn't know ahead of time, but it was pretty cool.



The kids wanted to take pictures of me and Ryan.