Hood River Mountain

We started out our day with a 5k race at our church. It was a fundraiser for the youth to go to camp. 

Then we headed east for a hike. We hiked Hood River mountain which we've done twice before. Once on our own when we got lost, and another time with Grandma and Grandpa Hall.

It was a beautiful, sunny, clear day. Here's one view we saw....

Mt. Adams

Mt. Hood

There were lots and lots of wildflowers blooming ~ they were just beautiful.

This is looking back along the summit ridge - if you look closely you can see patches of yellow which are the wildflowers growing all over this hill.

We even saw a couple of these guys....

It was a fantastic day! What did you do today?

More From Our Vacation

We decided to spend Friday doing "city" things and headed north to Bend. We stopped at the High Desert Museum on our way and were treated to seeing many animals native to high desert landscapes. 

This was the bobcat. We also saw a lynx, but it was sleeping.

We also caught a predatory birds lecture and learned all about screech owls. This is William the screech owl.

I saw this vintage Caterpillar and took some photos. 

After the museum we went to a chocolate factory, ate a gross lunch and then did some rock climbing at the Bend Rock Gym. When we headed back to Sunriver we saw this gorgeous sunset that got more intense as each moment passed. 

This is just a picture of my cuties laying in bed watching cartoons....something they don't get to do at home.

On Saturday we decided to try to hike up as much of South Sister as possible. We knew that the road we needed to drive on is sometimes closed due to snow, but there was hardly any snow so we assumed it would be open. Guess what....it wasn't. Apparently they don't even attempt to clear it, they just close it. 


This is just a look out our front window as we drove towards the mountains. The big one is Mt. Bachelor and is a huge ski resort.

Disappointed we turned around in the Mt. Bachelor ski parking lot and tried to figure out plan B. We had seen some snow parks but were doubtful there would be enough snow to ski. At the very least we figured we could hike. 


We set off on a snow shoe trail and pulled the girls behind us in these sleds. In these pictures Kevin is pulling both girls but don't let that fool you - I pulled Kayleigh most of the way.

The trail through the forest was beautiful. We did have snow most of they way, but it didn't require snow shoes.

We were hoping to get all the way to the "shelter". We didn't quite make it, so we set up our own little camp and ate our lunch, drank some hot chocolate and warmed ourselves by a fire.

Syd got to hang out in her hammock again....and then we headed back.

This is what Kayleigh's hair looked like when we took her hat off!

We returned to the house, showered, put on fancy clothes and headed into Bend for dinner. So much fun and so many good memories!


All too soon it was time to head home. We got up early and set off to find a good place for breakfast. We ended up in Sisters, OR as we were hoping to go home a different way. As soon as we started west we saw signs that said chains were required on all cars. Putting chains on the tires is messy and puts Kevin in a bad mood very quickly so we nixed that idea. We could see the storm clouds hanging over the Cascades and we  opted for the longest, but safest route home. 


As we drove through the Columbia River Gorge we saw signs of fresh snow everywhere. It was quite pretty.

We arrived home to find all our pets were still alive ~ although Narnia looks sicker than ever. 


And that's the end of this Foley Family Adventure.

Winter Vacation ~ Sunriver

You may or may not know that we Foleys took a winter vacation to central Oregon. We drove down to the Bend area on Wednesday and just returned today. Because it was off season and because we were able to come during the wee and because it was a holiday weekend, we got a sweet deal on a house in the resort town of Sunriver. 

On our way there we were treated to beautiful, partial views of a ring around the sun.

And beautiful views of Mt. Hood - it just never gets old.

Both girls loved that we had a fireplace and apparently their animals enjoyed it too!

One of our reasons for going to central Oregon was to enjoy some winter sports. We were sad to discover that Sunriver is having a very  mild winter (like so many other parts of the country) and there was no snow at our location of 4500 feet. We did drive up into the mountains a bit and found enough snow to sled and ski on .

I also found this creek with some cool ice formations.

Syd got this cool hammock for her birthday so Kevin set it up while we stopped for a picnic lunch.

On our drive back to Sunriver we took a scenic route ~ as you can see, it was quite scenic!

When we returned to Sunriver, we decided to check out the village. There are quite a few shops and restaurants. There is even a public ice rink (although it was a bit pricey!) One of our favorite shops was a rock and gem store. Sydney was very excited to spend her birthday money there. She picked out a thunder egg and had them cut it open for her ~ it was full of beautiful crystals. 


It was so quiet in the village during the week. We felt like we had the whole place to ourselves!


Here the girls are playing on the sun in the center of the village.

I'll post more later....