And..... They're OFF!!!! - 2016/17 school year

Just like that summer is over and a new school year is on its way. The kids were excited and a little bit nervous this morning as they made their way to their new school. This year we decided to put all the kids into Morning Star Christian School. It is preschool through 8th grade with small class sizes. It will be wonderful not having to drive in 3 different directions for schools in the future. Can't wait to see what this school year will bring. It's going to be a great year!

I managed to get a quick picture before we left the house and a couple at school. Hunter is at that middle school age so I stood back and snapped a picture and watched him walk in the doors.

Hunter 5th grade, Noah 4th, Abbie 2nd & Preston JK

Thayer Lake High on the East Flank of North Sister

I took Hunter and Noah on a day hike today as they wanted to try something longer.  Hunter wants to to South Sister so I thought this might be interesting practice, plus the books said it was very unknown but beautiful.  It was a lot of off trail hiking and scrambling with approx 11 miles of hiking completed and 2300 ft of vertical taking up up over 7700 ft in elevation.  

The trail was pretty uneventful moving through the Pole Creek burn area for the first 2 miles with filtered views of the surrounding mountains.

After this we headed slightly off trail for another 2-ish miles up along the banks of soap creek staying to the north side.  The trail if you could call it that was off and on so we picked our way up towards a ridge that finally allowed up to get a view of the hulking main mass of north sister up close.  Our target was the yellow bulge to have lunch - the kids wanted to touch snow.  You can see the little snow to the left of the yellow budge and then the kids going across these small snow fields in the 3rd and 4th pics

From here we scrambled up further to see if we could find this supposed lake... I was not hopefully but the guide book said it was there if you just scrambled up a little more.  Then Boom - as we crested the moraine it came into view.

On the way down - we followed the creek properly and what a treat.  Green lush valley, bubbling stream, tasty water.



Birthday Tea Party

Abbie officially turned 7 on the 20th. It was the day we got back from a week at Black Butte. Everyone was tired so we decided to celebrate the next day. We went to Redmond not far from Bend for a lovely afternoon of tea. The tea house is owned by a woman from the UK who has moved to Oregon. The tea house is called AK's Tea Room. How how fitting that was for Miss Abbie-Kate (AK). Abbie wanted it girls only and invited LuLu, Aislyn and her mom Tina, a dear family friend to come along for her birthday afternoon. Lulu even treated the girls to handmade head warmers for winter. It was a perfect way to celebrate our sweet Abbie.

Proxi Falls

A short hike followed by some difficult scrambling to get to the base of the lower falls but everyone made it! A spectacular waterfall!

to get there from Bend travel to Sister and then over makenzie pass on the 242 until you hit mile marker 65.  Just past 65 you will see roadside parking and a sign indicating the trailhead.  A little less than 1.5 miles to the falls.