Mt. St. Helens

Lindsey has been dying to go see Mt. St. Helens. In her words, we "finally" got to see it. Yesterday bright and early we left for the long day of driving and touring the "blast zone." All the kids had a great time walking and running around outside, seeing the exhibits and videos and gift shops. Lindsey just soaked up all the info she could about the volcano.

Even Aidan got into it. He kept pointing out the mountain and saying mountain.

He liked trying to say and remember Mt. St. Helens.

We couldn't have gone on a better day. It was so warm and clear.

Mt. St. Helens

Jaime's parents came with us. It made the trip that much better.

We loved the wild flowers.

Jaime, Martin and the kids

Grandma Morales and Olivia

I think we'll remember this trip for years to come.

My little volcanologist. She's the reason this trip happened.

Grandma and Grandpa (Papa) Morales and kids

We saw steam coming from Mt. St. Helens.

It was so beautiful. We are truely blessed to live in this wonderful area.

At one of the visitor centers the kids got to make "earthquakes" by jumping on the pad and watching the needle mark how big their earthquake was on the seismograph.

The kids rode well for the most part until the drive home, Tyler cried most of it.

Lindsey, Aidan, and Olivia "flying" a helicopter.

Linds climbed to the top of the mountain!

And Liv slid down where the mudslide was on the "mountain" at the playground.

On our way back we stopped at a viewpoint to get a pic of Mt. Rainer.

I've always thought Mt. Rainier was so majestic.

Now Lindsey wants to go to Crater Lake so I think that may be in the vacation plans for next summer. :)

After having a great dinner at the Fire Mountain Grill, we went for the 5 hour drive home. Tyler and Aidan finally fell asleep the last 30 minutes...figures. We got home at 11 p.m. and all were happy to get into bed and crash. They all said it was well worth it though. And that's all the counts, right?