Mount Rainier's Spray Park

One of our favorite hikes is Spray Park in Mount Rainier National Park.  This hike really has it all from towering waterfalls, deep alpine forests, and high mountain meadows with hundreds of varieties of wildflowers.  In fact, the name Spray Park comes from the "spray" of flowers" in the high meadows.  This year's hiking group included Roger, Sam, Ryan, Matthew, Matthew, Aubrey, and Isaac.  We also saw Corey and Lisa on the trail.  Here are some pictures from our hike:

Isaac is 7!

We celebrated Isaac's 7th birthday at Lake Tapps in Washington near Matthew and Aubrey's home.  Isaac has been begging for a skateboard for months and Matthew and Aubrey delivered.  For the past week Isaac has been asking when he would turn 7 and for the past day he has been asking "am I really 7."  Joining in the celebration were Brian and Tiffany's and Corey and Lisa's family.  We had a fun day swimming, roasting hot dogs, and a late night ride around the lake.  We didn't give him 7 spankings, but we did dunk him a few times.

Happy birthday Isaac!

Isaac's Soccer Team

Here is the picture of Isaac's soccer team taken the last week of the season.  This team was fun to watch and Isaac had a great time.  And yes, he is the same age as the next boy to his left.

Grand Teton National Park

On Friday, we decided to take a quick trip over the mountains to enjoy Grand Teton National Park.  We hiked around Jenny's Lake to Hidden Falls and then took the boat ride back to the dock.  Emrie is proving to be quite the hiker and Isaac the rock scrambler.  We then drove north to String Lake and thanks to the generosity of some new friends we were able to kayak around the lake.  Isaac, Emrie, and Christopher all swam in the crystal clear water and fed the minnows.

After our day of hiking, kayaking, and swimming we enjoyed a barbecue dinner at Bubbas, with Christopher and Isaac downing large quantities of baby-back ribs.  We accidentally ordered an extra large helping of wings, but we were hungry enough that we had no problems finishing them off.