Todd Lake

This weekends exploration took us to Todd Lake, one of the many Cascade Lakes. This lake had many pros - closest to home, small enough that it's not too cold, tadpoles/frogs to explore, a very short walk in to the lake - which makes it very convenient to carry in ALL your necessities like floaties, chairs, food and drinks!

 We were impressed with the views upon arrival

 Jaxon had fun checking out all the tadpoles in the water and then as we hiked around, we found frogs!

I just love it when the kids pick up the camera and take pictures. It's so fun to see through their eyes!

Hopping through the muddy flows that run to the lake

The curviest flow

You should have seen the look on Jaxon's face as he watched Mitch go wading into the lake w his shoes on! Of course Jaxon followed quickly behind and thought it was one of the coolest things of the day!

 Mt. Bachelor peeking through

 Just relaxing

I found my Christmas trees for this year. Loved the needles! Now just need to find out what kind it is.

Fathers Day 2015

Our Most Adventurous Mountain Bike Ride thus far!!

We decided to take the long loop through over the Smith Rock area which consisted of going up and over the mountain instead of just following the river trail along the base of the mountain and then backtracking, which we had done a couple times already, albeit hiking!

 

Not sure why I didn't think to take pictures looking down from the top at what we had accomplished or from the bottom up... it could be the views that captivate and distract me or it could be from oxygen deprivation and exhaustion when we pause to rest.

 

 The landscapes are pretty amazing

 

 Mitch and Jaxon out on the edge.

 That really was a 'hold on I'm not ready for a pix', not 'we're number one!' Although I am pretty proud of myself for making this ride, especially since the first time the boys took me out (in May) I refused to ride the narrow, steep, snowy trail!

 

Back down on the bottom.

May 9 and 10 Weekend Excursions

 Weekends consist of going out and exploring this new outdoor playground that we live in. This area was below Mt. Bachelor. We start w a rough idea of where we think we are and where we think we're going but usually we end up being on our own adventure.

 

 

 

 

 

After out hot and dusty hike we stopped by to check out Elk Lake on our way home to cool off.

 

We all enjoyed dipping our toes in the water and cooling off. We also found a lot of crawdads just under the rocks along the shore line!

 

 And Sunday's adventure - Once again I'm not sure where we set out to go, I believe it was a bike trail above a lake that unknowingly, until we got there, still had snow on parts of it. I wasn't too excited about that one, luckily this area is mountain bike heaven. We ended up finding a forest service road that was perfect for all levels of mountain bikers! Some of us are a little more daring than others.

 We had a great time on this road near Sunriver, an area that we have become very fond of!