Friday we excused Kaj from school and were shooting for going to the Fruit Loop up at Mount Hood, but with a late start we decided to go to the Blue Pool hike instead. We had done the hike before when Rowan was not quite a year. It's a 2 mile each way hike so kindof a lot for little legs especially the littlest of the legs..Rowan's who insisted on walking a lot more of it than we expected. We forced him into the jogger and continued. We finally were getting near the end and we passed some bikers who said we were about 10 minutes out. So close! But with Rowan getting more and more difficult Sam turned around to start the trek back, and a couple minutes later my mom realized she had left her phone in the jogger we ditched to the side of the trail and turned around, and my dad and I with just Kaj and Josh soldiered on. Approximately two seconds after soldiering Kaj had his pants around his ankles ready to drop numero dos right on the trail and luckily held it long enough to be in a more secluded place to take care of that. I started walking a few steps but seconds after that Josh started crying because he needed to go to the bathroom but refused to go outside so as I was talking to him when I realized my dad was trying to clean off the bottom of Kaj's shoe who had accidentally stepped in his own poops. My dad and I looked at each other threw up the white flags simultaneously and turned around. That was the dramatics of the hike but really we enjoyed beautiful scenery to this very cool hike.
 |
| Little Rowan steps |
 |
| looks like he about to start a punch dance |
Saturday morning we decided to go to Sisters for the Fall festival and then hit the pumpkin patch afterward. Another full day and fun day. We checked out the stands and the fall festival. It was nice because we got there early and it wasn't very crowded in the beginning. Sisters is a neat little town. Like a Park City meets...country living?? It is just fun. 
We then went straight to the pumpkin patch at the DD Ranch which we had not been to before. At first I thought, "really?" But it didn't take long to realize the boys were going to love every second of it. Right away they had a huge sandbox full of toys and slides and teeter totters and then we went to the maze and play area and this way so much fun. The boys could have spent hours upon hours just in that part. My dad said: "this looks like Farmer John just woke up and put this together." Which actually sums it up nicely. We had to laugh looking around because nothing was up to code or regulation because there was no code or regulation. I say this in a refreshing way. The kids could climb up on bails of hay, go down a slide that could easily tip over, and go up a ladder that literally led to nothing. Just a ladder against a fence. That is it. Haha. It was so much fun.
The last thing we did was have the boys take a pony ride. I had to make this point that ponies at this year's ranch a lot better than last. The ponies last year looked so sad and like they were going to kill over any minute I recall feeling really bad for the ponies, and this year they went on an actual ride up and back down a path. I felt like this was noteworthy. The ponies were so much happier.
 |
| 2014 pony |
 |
| 2015 pony |
It was a really enjoyable weekend and loved the time we all spent together. It made me miss my parents and miss the opportunity to have my kids see their grandparents often. Of course, I have to look for the bright side and it is that we get good quality time when we have visits like this which I will always cherish. 
