Caves, Camping and 'Canos! Our Adventure at Mt. Saint Helens

We took a family camping trip to Mt. Saint Helens this past weekend, and this was the first camping trip of the summer that Christian was able to come on (YAY for being done with school!) This was also a special trip because all of Christian's immediate family was able to come...his parents, both brothers, their wives and all the kiddos!

Before we left for this trip, the boys and I watched a few documentaries on Mt. Saint Helens, vocanoes and caves...and then we created our very own volcano!

It was fun to spend some time learning before we went to the mountain! The boys had a much better understanding of volcanoes, lava and caves...and I think that made it more fun that way!

After driving on a gravel road up the mountain (up to the snow!) we turned around and came back down to enjoy this beautiful view of Mt. Saint Helens!

Judah found a dandelion at the base of Mt. Saint Helens. It's neat to see how wildlife is growing once again after the devastation of the volcano! 

The boys were pretty excited to see the mountain as they had in the documentary...without its' top!

Lava Canyon...all the rocks Josiah could ever hope for!

We also spent some time at the Trail of Two Forests (Petrified forest), where lava had flowed down the mountain and transformed the forest.

Judah exploring the lava rock

This is a hole where a tree trunk used to be; lava burned the tree up and left a hole where the trunk was.

Taking a break in the petrified forest!

Judah had quite the adventure of his own while we explored broken lava ground. As we were climbing up broken pieces of lava rock, he suddenly disappeared! He had fallen straight down into a little lava cave. It was quite terrifying for me as I had no idea how far down it went! But praise God, he had landed on his feet, unharmed!! I'm still not sure how that happened! He had screamed and cried, but it turned out that he was so upset because his shoe had fallen off when he fell! I am SO thankful that this can be a humorous memory and a reminder of God's protection of my sweet baby! 

The hole Judah fell into in the ground!

Josiah with his cousin Casey and his Papa, exploring lava rocks and little caves

We also got to explore Ape Caves. While we were hiking through the cave, Josiah reminded me how the scientists in the documentary (that we watched before going on our trip) had collected cave water in the hopes of creating new medicines from the special bacteria found in the water. It made me happy to see him applying things he'd learned to our trip (that was my evil plan!!)

Entrance to Ape Caves

Josiah playing with his flashlight in the caves

Judah and Christian in the cave

There was beautiful scenery everywhere we went!

At our campsite

This was such an excellent way to celebrate Chrstian's birthday and our 6th anniversary! We had a blast (haha) exploring Mt. Saint Helens!

On our anniversary!

Butterflies and Bye Byes!

Josiah recieved a Butterfly Bungalow for his birthday. I have to say, I've enjoyed it just as much as he has! We waited patiently until his caterpillars arrived in the mail (yep, baby caterpillars, right in our mailbox!) Josiah named them "Climber" and "Crawler".



After Climber and Crawler emerged from their chrysalis, Josiah decided to rename them, "Flyer" and "Lander".

We had a lot of fun observing them in the Butterfly Bungalow. It was neat to see them learn to fly with their new wings!

We kept them for a day, and then Josiah decided it was time to let them fly free. He said they had to go to "butterfly world" and he hoped that "the birds wouldn't eat them". lol, which, he then reminded himself wouldn't happen, since their bright colors warn birds that they taste yucky! :)

Time to say goodbye!

He cheerfully let them go, shouting "Bye Flyer!! Bye Lander!!" until they were out of sight.

Josiah's documentation of metamorphasis :)

Josiah's Bug Birthday Party!

I can't believe my little baby is turning 5. It has been such a joy and a blessing to see him grow into the little guy that he is, with unique interests of his own. Currently, he is obsessed with insects. So what better way to celebrate his 5th birthday than with a bug party!

Party favors: bugs, bags and magnifying glasses!

 It was so much fun to entertain in our new home for the first time! We had a "bug hunt", where the kids had to search the backyard for bugs (plastic!).

Face painting (bugs, of course!)

Josiah chose to have dirt cake with gummy worms as his birthday cake, yummy!

The birthday boy was allowed one WHOLE pop to himself...a first (and a last...for a long time at least!)

 

Josiah is in the Burger King Kid's Club and the ToysRUs Birthday Club...so he was able to get lots of birthday goodies for FREE...$3 TRU giftcard, crowns, balloon, free kids meal, etc! 

Josiah chose to buy a "bug playground" with some of his TRU gift card...

Josiah had so much fun at his party, hopefully something he'll remember for years to come. Happy 5th birthday, my sweet little buggy boy! 

Time to make it ours!

We're slowly getting around to transforming this green house into OUR house. It takes a lot of work, but boy is it FUN to have the freedom to paint the walls whatever colors we want, landscape, and decorate! Christian's parents have been a huge help, lending themselves and their experience to our projects!

                                                              The boys' room!



before



the boys loved helping tear the wallpaper down!




the finished room!



The boys picked a space theme for their room. They loved being involved and having a say in how their room was going to look! They even created the artwork for the walls. We bought space decal stickers off of Amazon....they're awesome! You can peel and stick them anywhere...and remove and re-stick whenever you want. It makes it so much easier for re-decorating in the future when the boys' interests change.

The boys' bathroom used to be a shocking yellow....we changed into a Finding Nemo theme (again using wall stickers) :)

We chose to turn the third bedroom into an office. I tried to get Christian to keep the walls this way....so he could feel like he's studying in a park (ha, ha). But....it just wasn't his taste, lol!

before!

after!



  




          And the living room......



before!




after!

 

 




We've got lots to do on our house, but we feel so blessed to have a home to make our own!

Boards and our Backyard

 Time to transform the yard! One of the major selling points of this house was the big backyard. There was just so many possibilities of what we could do with it (all of which involved our boys getting as much exercise and energy out as possible! :)  We started by building a french drain around the backyard, as it had a bit of a flooding problem.

The boys were thrilled with the mountain of rocks in our driveway!

Then we moved on to preparing the area for the kids' playstructure. There had previously been a large garden in that spot, so we were able to just flatten it out (gasp! Don't worry..it had been neglected for quite a while, so we didn't destroy anything that could've been eaten!.) The boys definitley were able to entertain themselves in the mud (which was a cheaper option than the playstructure) but the muddy laundry that accumulated each day was getting a bit of a hassle!

We were able to find a fantastic deal on a playstructure at ToysRUs, and it ended up being better than we had planned! It took 2 days to install, including lots of sorting of the boards and hardware and 32 steps to put it all together. Whew!

To keep things as simple as possible, I sorted the boards and hardware according
 to each step so we could just grab and go (sorting took about 4 hours)!

Papa had some helpers when we moved in all the cedar chips!

The finished product! Of course, Daddy had to push them on the swings right away!

Home Sweet Green House

After over a year of house hunting...we finally found the house! I have to say, taking the plunge is a little intimidating. But with Christian's massive CPNE exam out of the way...and the kids gaining a larger capacity of energy by the hour....it was time. Not that we didn't like our sweet little apartment, but to be honest, we were looking forward to sleeping in a bedroom where we couldn't hear our neighbor snoring every night...



                                

                                      Thank goodness we had little movers to help us!

We learned that there are many perks to moving a few doors down from your parents. Here's a prime example! 



They selflessly let us move everything we owned into their garage, and stay in their home until we closed on our house so that we could get out of our apartment sooner!

And here it is....our green house. Funny to think it's been four houses down from where my husband lived throughout his teenage years! We are so blessed to have such a great home (for such a great price!).  Thanks to Christian's incredibly hard work and dedication, it's truly a dream come true.

Now on to making this house feel like home....lots of painting, yardwork, etc to be done! :)