Zoo visit

Lei Lei has been home two months and Lydia broke her arm!

Lei Lei continues to be a joy for all of us. He is fun and sweet and truly a lovely child. It says a lot that his 8 year old sister adores her little brother. He loves to measure, create, swim, tease, camp, throw pinecones, and play with sticks. His English vocabulary is growing daily and he knows how to use his words to win over all of us. I am so blessed!

On a sad note, our sweet  Lydia moved too fast from her round-off into her back handspring and fell twisting and breaking her right hand. It was during a gymnastics display up at the park and traumatic for all of us! After five hours in the emergency room she has a splint on and will get her cast on Thursday. Not to be outdone, Simon goes in for his ACL surgery next Friday. Our deductible has been met!

Oh, what a week!

We headed up to Mount St. Helen's this past week and had an adventurous four days. For the past seven years our family has peaked a mountain with our friends. This is the first year we car camped verses backpacking up to the base of our climb. The kids were excited about the ease of the trip. Little did we know about the challenge of the mountain. How steep could a mountain be that blew off a large portion of its top, right? Every year I have done my research and have known exactly what to expect. This year because of many factors, I chose to 'wing it'. Silly me!
        

                                           Packing and Food Preparation

Our campsite

A day of looking over the mountain

If you look closely to the right of the kids you can see the mountain. This was the location where a man photographed a quick series of pictures of the explosion before realizing the landslide was moving at a rate of 150 miles per hour. It was blowing toward the north, but none-the-less, he was in great danger and jumped in his car outrunning the heat and wind.

5 AM and ready to climb!