debor026

On the second day of camping my older sister and I took our kids out to the Dee Wright Observatory which is just a short drive from Sisters, Oregon. From there you can see two of the Three Sisters, Mt. Jefferson, Mt. Washington and several of the major buttes and landmarks. It was a beautiful clear day and perfect for the views. The building was made from the lava rocks at the site and the "castle look" got the kids excited to play Save the Princess and other sword fighting games. They all had a good time playing here. Up on the top there is a dial to tell you which direction to look for each sight, how far and how tall they are. The view for the North and Middle Sisters is always my favorite. In the lower room of the observatory it's also fun to check the patterns of the water stains on the ceiling. It's not exactly one of the attractions but I think it's very cool.

From Wednesday to Sunday the kids and I went camping in Oregon with my sisters and their families. On Thursday morning I took my kids down to Sahalie Falls and followed part of the trail down towards Koosah Falls (which we didn't quite make it to as the kids were wearing out). This is beautiful Sahalie Falls from the viewpoint. There were several lovely rainbows when we got there in the morning. This is from the viewpoint above the falls. This rainbow was actually a double but the second was faint and a little harder to catch. From the waterfall we followed the lower trail towards Koosah Falls for a bit. The boys LOVED this staircase and we spent a little extra time as they went up and down it. Erin stood with me and just watched as she was worried about falling off and into the river. In a nice easy spot I freaked Erin out a bit when I went off the trail for a better picture and she was sure I'd fall in which would somehow make her fall in even though she stayed on the tr...

I have lived in Reno for 8 years-ish. When I first moved here I heard that there was a zoo and I took my kids out there. It was, um, well it was bad. The poor animals looked sad in little dinky squares with not much natural shade, plants etc. The kids didn't like it and we never went back. Not long after that I heard that there is also a wildlife sanctuary here but after my zoo experience I never went out there to have a look around. That was a mistake! We took all of the kids out to Animal Ark on Saturday and it was wonderful. The viewing areas had a nice view of most of the animals and this big boy came right close up to see us. The animals have nice big spaces to move around in, the big ones are rotated often so they aren't out all day and there is a lot of natural shade and interest in their homes. We were there around the time that they were changing the bears around and the kids really enjoyed watching it. They placed fruits all around for Yogi (yes, the bear) to...

This Sunday, I was a 10-10-10 bride. A little over a year ago we were deciding on dates when hubby, being a computer geek, noticed that the date was all 1s and 0s and could be a binary number. Since he was sitting at the computer anyway he converted it to decimal and behold, it was 42, the answer to life, the universe and everything At least, it is according to Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but maybe there is something to it because it sure felt like a great day to me. Our ceremony was in a casino since I do live in Reno after all. And I must say if you are getting married in Reno, the Atlantis really was beautiful. We looked at several of the chapels here and considered the possibility of an outdoor wedding. Unfortunately, the weather in mid October is a little too unpredictable to guarantee good outdoor weather (though it did turn out to be a beautiful day) and all of the chapels we saw looked like they might have been decorated in the 80's and then forgotten. I want...