Mount St. Helens

In case you haven't heard it before, weekend adventures here in the PNW are my infinite staycations of escape with timeless memories I get to make with my family. This week in the PNW wonderland tour, we headed southeast to the general direction of Mount St. Helens with no real planned destination. Our day started off cloudy *enter shock here* as we landed our first stop at the Mount St. Helens Visitor Center at Silver Lake. I'd seen some gorgeous panoramic views of the mountain from other Instagram users I follow from this location so I was eager to get my photographic geek on.🤓📸 Sadly, the mountain was not in view so we grabbed a park map and headed further east to the Johnston Ridge Observatory. It was only about a 45+ minute drive along some state road, but with beautiful views of the once bare valley and other little pull-offs and viewpoints along the way.

The views at the top were so pretty...it took us, like, 15 minutes just to get out of the parking lot! It was so peaceful and picturesque I didn't want to leave! I mean, even just the wild flowers in bloom during summer were enough to fill my creative cup. But, alas, we did just drive 1.5 hours to see even more from ol' Helen.
There was a small fee for adults, but because we are military we get free entry to all National Parks...it's a park perk if you will. 😉 The gift shop/observatory was really nice inside with interactive maps and diagrams throughout. They even have a movie theater where they play a short film on the history of Mt St Helens and the astonishing resilience of nature after she erupted in 1980. *This just in: according to Wiki the Mt St Helens' eruption was the most deadly and economically destructive volcanic eruption in US history.* Who knew you'd be hit with historical facts on LtL?? For those of you that know me, you can close your mouth now...😧

Ok, that's enough education for the day...now, please scroll through and enjoy some pics!

^^^ I spy with my little eye...👀

💙💙💙

^^^ There she is, playing peekaboo

^^^ Caption this: I'm the king of the worldddd!

^^^ There were (squirrel-sized) chipmunks running all around, so to keep B entertained a bit longer we told him to call for them along the trail. This is him calling "Helloooo, Chipmunkss!" More accurately heard as "hewooo ????"

This is the ledge outside the observatory with indescribable panoramic views of Mt St Helens, trails, mountain ranges, and rivers...all of this greenery sprung from hundreds of square miles of thick ash. The fortitude of nature after seemingly zero chance of life is giving me all kinds of symbolism over here, y'all...

"By faith we understand that the universe was formed at God's command, so that what is seen was not made out of what was visible." Hebrews 11:3


I hope y'all enjoyed our day trip to Mt. St. Helens! Geoff and I both agreed another trip is in order before we leave when she is out and about, shining bright for her viewers to admire.

Happy weekend all!❤️

Lemons to Love,

Titlow Park

In my last post I shared with y'all a few different stops along the PNW wonderland tour during the 4th of July weekend! Today's post is from our outing to Titlow Park up in the North Tacoma area. This is one of my favorite splash parks in the South Sound area! Y'all may remember it from this post when I met a girlfriend and her two littles up there for the day. We didn't play in the splash park during this trip, but instead we explored the shore lines of the beach -- AKA Rock Mecca for Brooks. We took a lunch picnic and made our voyage out to the beach. I'd never really explored much past the dock, so it came as a welcomed surprise that the beach actually extended pretty far with a better view of the Narrows Bridge.

It turned out to be a beautiful day of just lazy play, low tide creatures, and sunny sky views.☀️

^ ^ ^ Turns out, moving a rock with your head is harder than it looks!😜

^ ^ ^ My loves...❤️

^ ^ ^ Here comes the train!🚂

^ ^ ^ This kid lives for trains, trucks...& rocks.

I hope y'all are enjoying your summer as much as we are!

Until next time...

And as always, thanks for reading!

Lemons to Love,

Sol Duc Falls

Summertime is HERE and it feels to be slippin' by...the 4th of July has already come and gone and I've got PFD (Post Fourth Depression). I've decided to self-medicate with blog posts of our weekend and planning more hikes during our last summer in the PNW.😄 **Please consult with your doctor before self-medicating for PFD, there are more patriotic holidays just around the corner**

This year for the 4th we went on a few different excursions, one being quite a jaunt up into the Olympic Peninsula (*cough* turns out a 3.5 hrs drive each way is, in fact, my limit on traveling for a hike). It's so hard to say no though because there are so.many.trails up in the Olympic Peninsula!  We could probably plan a different trail for every weekend through the summer and still not hike half of what's to offer. We're trying to hit 100 miles of hiking before winter rears it's ugly face, but with the weather being so BLEH lately it's hard to get out there and get'er done with a toddler in tote.

So with our long, holiday weekend we drove out to the Sol Duc River trail in the Olympic National Forest. It's a bit of a tourist spot due to the natural hot springs right at the start of the trail, but most visitors were more interested in the springs which left the trail quiet and underpopulated...just how we like it.😊 It was a 6.0 mile round trip hike with mild elevation and beautiful views throughout the forest. I would definitely do this trail again but leave earlier in the day to allow for more time near the water.

^ ^ ^ Poor quality pic from my phone, but only one I got of us as a fam from the day...plus, look at that little nugget cheesin' in the back!😁

^ ^ ^ B is always reminding us how important it is to stay hydrated!😉

Hope you enjoyed our PNW hiking adventures for the 4th! We've got plenty more on the list to cross off before summer ends, so stay tuned!☀️

Don't forget to check out our video montage below!! If it's not working for you, please leave me a comment below-- still figuring this whole blogging tech/coding thing out! 😁🤔👇🏼👇🏼

Lemons to Love,