Family Visit

Mom, Adam, and Ian came and visited us this past week. It was awesome and they need to come back! It's sad to not see them very often. We did tons of fun stuff. We slack lined, some of us more successfully than others.

We went to Bend and found this amazing little malt shop. We also went to Sisters and ate at a restaurant run by a Polish lady who kissed mom and Adam. What an adventure! And speaking of eating, we also ate at Kababas (which is middle eastern food). I felt like we were on an eating tour and I'm pretty sure I came home twenty pounds heavier.

We checked out Tumalo falls. It was falling. Ian thought it was pretty exciting I guess.

You can't come to Burns without going down the huge Hines Park slide. Even if it's raining and there's a huge puddle at the end. We made Ian go down first to soak up most of the water on the slide. Heh.

My pants wouldn't slide so I ended up walking down most of it.

Adam thought it was pretty funny to dip his brother in a puddle. Luckily Ian thought it was funny too.

Thursday we went to Kimberly, OR and picked apples and pears. It was raining the whole way there but it stopped when we actually started picking. The trees were so wet that it felt like we still got rained on.

After the orchards we stopped at the John Day Fossil Beds and went on a little hike and saw the visitors center. The green mud was sort of disgusting.

Haha, this was the best. At our work we have fistulated cows so the scientists can study cow nutrition. Rory asked if we could stick our hands in one and they let us! Adam got his fingertips in before deciding he was about to barf. Mom was brave and stuck her whole hand and half her arm in! I got a hand in and Ian wouldn't even come close. Our hands stunk for sooooo long afterwards! We eventually had to put this nasty grandma smelling lotion from Bath and Body Works on to cover the smell.

After teasing him about his loose teeth all week Ian finally caved in and let Rory tie a piece of floss to his tooth. Rory had him close his eyes and told him a story and slammed the door. No more tooth.

The visit ended with a Luchador fight. Rory was the uncontested winner. It's probably because he was wearing stretchy pants.

Other things we did but didn't take the camera: Swam at the Crystal Crane Hot Springs, made lots of delicious food, played backyard frisbee golf, played tons of nintendo, and saw the Malheur Bird Refuge.What a fun week! Thank you family for coming and seeing us!

Our Moms Taught us Not to Play With Matches

They didn't say anything about drip torches...

We've been burning at Squaw Butte. Rory calls this picture the Eye of Sauron. I call it a super hot fire. I thought I melted my pants to my legs while we were lighting it.

The crew taking a break.

About to light another big fire. Woosh!

Aleta N. took this picture. I really like it.

A rock got stuck in the tires of our big bad fire truck and Rory just couldn't get it out no matter what he did. I think it eventually fell out while driving.

The Butte's guard dog.

We found a bat! We think it was disoriented from all the smoke because it was just flopping around. When we put it in a tree it climbed up just fine... I pretend that it survived.

It was beautiful to watch the fires as the sun went down. There were twinkling lights all over the hills.

Girls Trip!

That's right. Girls trip! It was awesome. My friend Rebecca and I decided we needed a little adventure so we packed our packs and headed to the Strawberry wilderness. It was great hiking weather. Nice and cool.

We hiked about 7 1/2 miles the first day and saw lots of beautiful scenery and one very stinky, very dead mountain goat. Here we are at Strawberry Lake about to be beamed up by Scottie. After visiting the Starship Enterprise we camped at the lake and maybe built an illegal fire.... oops. It was kind of scary sleeping in the wild without any guys but we made it. The only visitors we had were some noisy deer and a very naughty chipmunk. It ate through Rebecca's pack.

The next day we hiked up Strawberry mountain! The view from the top was amaaaazing! Especially because there wasn't any smoke. We even got to sign the mountain log! We sat around on top for a while relaxing and being super cool and then hiked down and out to our car on the Onion Creek trail. On the way out we saw a girl with the biggest snot bubble on her nose that I've ever seen.... just thought I'd mention that.

Yes, we are that tough.

It was a great trip and I loved the girl talk. We're going to have to do it again. Anyone else want to come?

Rodeos and Honeypots

The Harney County Ranch Rodeo was this weekend and when something exciting happens in Harney County you don't miss it. This years rodeo was seriously exciting! We sat in the perfect seat. All the buckin' broncos bucked right in front of us and one guy nearly knocked himself senseless on the fence in front of us. Plus we sat next to an older cowboy who thought everything was pretty entertaining.

And there were lion balls....

Moving on from rodeos. I got the cutest little honeypot!

Trotting Fox and Rock Monkey Attempt the PCT

We had an epic adventure....

Our goal: 130 miles on the Pacific Crest Trail in 7 days.

We almost made it.

We started out Friday afternoon and hiked 8 miles to camp under Mt. Thielsen. We got to camp after dark but in the morning we saw how gorgeous our camp spot was.

Breakfast the next morning. Pancakes with raspberry syrup. Rory was a little disappointed they didn't end up looking like pancakes. Scrambled pancakes taste just as good as whole ones.

Day two we got cocky. We hiked 22 miles. By the end of the day I had blisters everywhere imaginable and my feet had swollen so much I couldn't bend my toes. Rory tweaked his knee and also got a blister.

We camped by a little lake that thankfully had water in it. The section we were hiking through was pretty dry.

Day three we decided to take it easy and hike 12 miles to Summit Lake. There were some amazing vistas. Too bad we were limping so much. We experienced some trail magic along the way. We'd forgotten ibuprofen but a wonderful gentleman gave us his bottle. By the end of day three it took us 3 1/2 hours to go 4 miles. We had been going 3 miles in an hour and 15 minutes. Bad deal. 

We got to Summit Lake and soaked our feet and decided we'd better get out while we could still walk. Summit Lake was beautiful and warm and had some really cool dragon flies.

Curried chicken for dinner helped us feel happier.

Blisters. Pictures don't do it justice.

Day four we hiked 8 miles out to a paved road and started hitch hiking back to our car. They'll probably never see this but thank you thank you thank you to Hunter Man, Mr. and Mrs. Harold and company, and Wendy and Lula (the therapy dog) for picking up our dirty, stinky, disreputable looking selves. And now I can cross hitch hiking off my bucket list!

We got back to our car and drove to Bend where we got a hotel and ate ourselves a mini heart attack (courtesy of Pilot Butte Burger). Delicious! We spent the evening soaking in a hot tub and talking to some old motorcycle dudes. They told us not to get into debt. Good advice.

We spent the next day exploring Tumalo and Sisters Oregon where we found tasty tamales and plump peaches. What could be better than a picnic in the park? A picnic in the park while putting your sore toes in the sweet cool grass.

We saw the Dee Wright observatory. It was a little hard to observe because of the smoke. The picture below is of the North and Middle Sisters and Little Brother.

All in all it was a great trip. We were sad that we had to end early but it's probably better than crippling ourselves for life. We made 56 miles in three days and hitch hiked 60 miles back again. We met and smelled some really interesting people along the way and I found out that for the most part strangers are very kind. If you are ever in the situation to safely pick up a hitch hiker please do. You may meet someone intriguing. Plus it's hot hiking on a road.