Weekend into Monday

I had the most wonderful weekend... so relaxing and yet we got so much done. We had been collecting things that needed to go to storage and had the back room totally full.. so we loaded that up and headed to storage.. which.. we happened to have a huge pile there that needed to go the goodwill and another pile that needed to go to the dump.. so we made a trip to goodwill and then loaded up for the dump and brought that home. That was Friday night.. it was late.. the dump was closed, which was ok because we had a few things at the house that needed to go... as always. I really have no clue where all this stuff keeps coming from. When we got home we decided, since the back room was clean, to sort some stuff around. We ended up staying up until about 3 am and moving the treadmill from the living room back there.. and the computer table from the dinning room back there. We also rearranged the living room and dinning room.... which we have decided we love.. makes the house look twice as big. It is nice having the wood floors... not only did everything move easily ( which was nice since I could not help ) Dave was able to just push things around, I also think that having the same floor throughout most of the house makes it all look a lot bigger too.

We finished that up on Saturday and ran to the dump... then later that night we had company over for dinner. They are some people that Dave has known for a long time and I am just starting to get to know, they are so much fun.. I laughed so hard my jaw hurt. They brought their daughters (teens) with them.. and they are totally sweet, fun girls and seem to have a really good relationship with their parents. They also brought some awesome chips and dip stuff.. ..I have gotten the recipe and will be adding it soon to Coffee Tea and Recipes. *hopefully tonight*

Sunday we did nothing.. and I mean nothing... we stayed in our jammies all day.. watched some tv... in fact I was chilling too much to even bother taking a nap. We did finally ( after dinner ) start working on some things.. me online and Dave had some work to do... so once again we did not get to bed until 3 am... we are much better swing shift people than morning people.

Today was horrible getting up...and it is the start of our walking everyday again.. so I set the alarm for 30 minutes early... starting off very slowly. I did walk for only about ten minutes.. did just over a half mile.. and then I got on the scale... arghhh. I was looking forward to heading to the beach today.. it had been over a week since I had been there.. it was a wonderful day to be there too... the water was so very calm.. the sun was shinning like it was a spring day.. and there were so many wonderful treasures... and then.. it started snowing.. with the sun shinning and a bright blue sky. It did not snow very much or for very long but it was beautiful!

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out the facebook fan page and the networked blogs and the signatures in artfire forums. I am trying to find as many new ways as possible to promote my shop and get some more sales going. Seems we sell a lot better in person than online.... so still going keep on working on building up stock and going to some shows this spring :)

~ Michelle

Mt St Helen's

This last weekend we went for a road trip.... we headed out really early in the morning... going south... why south? Well we had a travel bug we found, while hiking last weekend, in a geocache. It needed to go south.. When we started looking at places to go that are south of us.. we knew it was going to be a long weekend with lots of things to do.
We wanted to explore Mt St Helens (mt that blew up in 1980's) and saw that on the way up the mountain there were so many caches.... we picked a few that we thought might be fun and headed out. So many things to explore... first stop was the Mt St Helens visitor center.. watched the movie and checked out the exhibits.. gave the kids a chance to learn a little history and find out what it was we would be exploring. We walked a little bit around the silver lake wetland haven trail, right there near the visitor center.. also found our first cache of the trip :)

We found a couple more caches as we headed up highway 504 towards Johnston Ridge Observatory (which we learned is still closed for the season)... we found a couple of tricky caches.. or at least we thought there were.. one was an old telephone receiver with a magnet stuck to it... and another was not so cool in what it was.. an old mint box.. but it had been painted and had thing taped to it so it looked like part of what it was stuck to. We also found our first nano cache this weekend.. wow it was tiny... we did our first earth cache...took our photo with a landmark and answered some questions about the area... it was a lot of fun. We did end up finding a nice cache on highway 503 to leave the travel bug in.. now we will watch to see where it goes *fingers crossed it heads to it's destination* Geo caching is a great way to get out as a family and really learn a lot of history and a lot about the area.

The rest of Saturday was full of beautiful views of the mountains.. and small hikes in the woods to explore things like beautiful lakes.. we went as far up the mountain as we can but will have to head back after may to see the view from the top.. still please with our photos.. were able to get some with just a few clouds.. that is pretty good for Washington. It was nice to watch the kids as they saw how even 30 years after the eruption that you can still very clearly tell.. in places it looks like mars or something from star trek.

We then drove to Vancouver Washington, one because we have a hotel that we like to stay in there.. and two because we all wanted Red Robin for dinner.. well the hotel worked out ok.. but the restaurant was FULL..so we drove around and did not really find anything else we loved.. so we tried a burgerville.. it sucked. Will not eat there ever again.. just plan ick.. and over priced.

Sunday we got up and planned on heading up highway 503 to the south side of St Helens. It was warm and sunny and we decided since we were so close that we would slip over the border into Oregon and drive through Portland ... we all love it there. Dave found a parking spot near the Saturday market (yes they have it on Sunday too) so we got out and spent a little over an hour just walking around seeing the sights and smelling the smells... it was so much fun.. watched some break dancers from Portland City Rockers doing their thing. We then headed back to Washington and to Mt St Helens.

Highway 503 up the mountain is abit more laid back and less touristy than 504. The signs of the eruption are not from the 1980 eruption but from ones many of thousands of years ago... had a picnic lunch at yale park... it was so beautiful.. picnic table right on the water. Then up to the ape caves.... we were not all sure if we would like this or not.. you climb underground in some tunnels that were made from the lava flow a long time ago.. it is very very dark and wet in there.... we LOVED it. We did the bottom hike.. you go in and hike down 3/4 of a mile then hike back up... next time we want to go in and go the other way..do the harder hike up 1.5 miles.. it goes over some rock hills and you have to crawl for some of it and you climb out on a ladder...we will be going back to explore that.. we will be a little better prepared.. some extra lights.. and gloves.. and knee pads.

By the time we done and back to I-5 we had a long drive to get home... we arrived home about midnight and quickly everyone went off to get some sleep before the long Monday started. That is the only problem with adventures.. is reality sets in nice and hard come Monday morning.

Click here to view more photos of our weekend.

~Michelle