Mt. St. Helens was visible! Well- all thats left of it.

This is why we live here in miserable weather for 10 months. For the few beautiful days like this one.

I can't say enough times, I love national parks. We are nerdy and have the national park passports, so every NP visitor centers we visit, we stamp our book. It dates and keeps track of our adventures. I love it. Here at the visitors center at Johnston ridge, like many other visitor centers, they have a junior ranger program, where Park Rangers explain the uniquness of the area in terms and hands on demonstrations for the kids level of understanding. This ranger was fun. There was an older gentleman who joined in the end and didn't realize that it was a child's program and began to immediately answer the questions the ranger was asking the kids. AWKWARD. I was embarrassed for him and had to walk away.

It is hard to imagine what St. Helens looked like before the devastation. I couldn't help but think about how Mt Rainier will change when it erupts. Sad.

One of the many times Ryan stops and explains things to the kids. I'm glad he is so smart.

We went on many trails, toward the end Mia was DONE walking. She sat down in the middle of a trail and refused to go on. After that she took a tumble out of Ryan's arms, he felt terrible. It is a good thing kids are resilient. Yes she does have a little bit of drool. Why is that funny when they are little?

This dial marks all the peaks surrounding the Johnston Ridge and we could see them all. Rare.

Mia's hair looks like she belongs in who-ville. She does. She live in a fantastical world. Her hair do was left over from the day before pony tail. I didn't bother fixing it because she was just so cute. Im hoping she'll forgive me later.

Life is really hard as the youngest, and yes Johnston family, I do take her out to lunch regularly, now that she has learned not to climb over the benches.

The boys over the last year have really been interested in Volcanoes. After seeing the devastation and the film footage of the aftermath they were very concerned that it was going to erupt again while we were there and that our house is going to wash away when Mt Rainier goes. I remember feeling that while visiting St. helens as a kid. It was fun to be transported to my childhood when I could feel what they felt. Sometimes we as adults forget the trust our children put in us and how vulnerable they can feel, How they REALLY rely on us for feeling safe.

Marsh not interested in taking a picture where it was hot. I think it was maybe 80 degrees this day. It was more than he could handle.


We had such a mess in the car after this trip. The usual mess from snacks and getting in and out of the car and things to entertain kids on the long drive down, markers, stuffed animals (why did they have to come? I don't know) Books, AND the boys smuggled in a bowl of blackberries they picked at home. At some point they got dropped and as they were coming in and out they were walking all over them, grounding them into the carpet. There goes the resale value! The "no snacks in the car" policy was in full force again after that. I think it lasted a day.

Amazing how St. Helens vegetation is coming back and the processes that started the regrowth. I learned that the thousands of trees weyerhauser planted in the blast zone was hand shoveled and planted to get through the ash to the nutrient rich soil. Sounds like a lot of work.