Mt Rainier

We were able to squeeze in a couple more adventures while staying at my parents house before our trip to Japan.  First up was Mt. Rainier.  We used to go here often when I was a kid so this trip brought back memories.  It was neat to bring my kids.  We've never actually even brought them except to go sledding one time, but this was a totally different experience.

The mountain is so pretty.  We had a couple cousins with us as well.

This next picture was of some sort of small geyser.  I don't remember details but it was bubbling.

The beavers did some work on this next tree.

It was interesting to see how the trees fell and grew at different angles.  We also saw lots of different plants on this first little hike.

After that one we went on a different longer hike.

I remember crossing this log as a child and thinking it was pretty scary.  Some of the kids were scared to but they all did it ok.  In fact I remember being scared to go on the mountain at all.  Learning that we were going to an active volcano when I was young was pretty terrifying.

The waterfall at the top.

Once that hike was done we drove to a really amazing waterfall.

While looking at it we saw some people at the bottom and decided to do some exploring of our own.  We ended up making it, but it was a little tricky and stressful for Bob and I.  There wasn't a clear path and we had to cross the river.  The kids thought it was great.  I was nervous someone was going to fall in the river and get swept away.

Everyone was really happy when we made it!  The kids were even talking about how it was the best day ever.  It was really pretty.

I'm glad we got to experience it before we left the country.