Old Salmon River Hike

One of the first weekends we were in our new town,  we found our 1st hike, the Old Salmon River Trail.  

A hike in the city, you ask?  How?  Well, first you have to drive out of the city!

We drove over a bridge in Portland, which allowed us this view, of another bridge being built.  James was amazed at how they were building this bridge.  That's a section of it, but it's not connected to land or any other part of the bridge for that matter.  

Finally we got on the trail.  Now we're back into comfortable territory.  

This trail had so many bridges, Taylor renamed it, Bridge Trail.

It's a lush trail that follows the river for quite awhile. 

When we were near the river, we could feel it's cool, refreshing breeze.  We could also hear it's rumbling current.  It was awesome!

 I think this is bridge #4 that we crossed.

 Number 5,

number 6,

 And number 7!  

James doing some exploring. 

When we were away from the river it became warm and somewhat humid,

 so as soon as we saw the river again...

the kids wet their faces, head and neck with cold river water.  Oh, so refreshing!

 They had to do a little exploring around the river rocks too.

 The Salmon River.

 Making discoveries on the trail. 

Stairs on a trail.  

In the end we didn't make it to the end of the trail.  I don't know how long it the hike is supposed to be.  We ended up with almost 5 miles of hiking though.  

Another great hike.  Another beautiful spot on our planet.  Another new place discovered.  And another day spent with family.  What more could you ask for?

Getting to Know Our New Town

Welcome to our new home.  This is what you'd see as you open the front door.  

This is a better view though, standing at the patio door.  Here you can see our front room, the dining room and the kitchen, even the hallway.  That's pretty much our entire apartment.  

We left our 5 ton recliner sofa in Oak Harbor.  We gave it away instead of hauling it up three flights of stairs with six 90 degree turns.  Then we were without furniture.  So we had to make a trip to IKEA.  Another advantage to living in the city. 

Anyway, we found these lightweight chairs and footstools.  They will suffice until we're done moving so frequently.  Easy to move around when vacuuming also.

 At the end of the hall is the Master Bedroom and Bathroom. 

Right next to the Master Bedroom is the second bedroom.  Unfortunately, the kids have to share again, but I think they are used to it now.  They are figuring out how to make it work.  There is also a 2nd full bathroom, which is nice.  It's pretty much the kids' bathroom.  

And that's it.  That's our apartment, for the next 2-3 months anyway.  

One of the first things we set out to find was our next park.  We had a park we loved in Oak Harbor.  It was a short walk from home and we went there all the time.  We had a park or two in Forest Grove as well, that felt like ours.  So we're on a mission to find that park in our new town. 

 This one was fun, but not it. 

 Kind of on the small and old side.  And it was really hard to find.  We kept seeing it and driving around it, but just couldn't get to it.  Finally we park on a street near it and walked up the hill to it.

 We'll keep this one in mind as we keep searching. 

 We found a great "park" the kids love,

 and had fun slides, apparently, but...

it's really the playground at a school.  So once school started we wouldn't be able to go back there.  

 I think we found a good one though, not far from our house.

 It's much newer, with modern equipment.  Logan loves climbing on the "spiderweb."

Yay!  I think we might have found our park!  This one also has a short walking path and covered picnic tables.  

We're also starting school ourselves.  We started when James started this rotation.  I asked the kids what they wanted to study and they told me.  So I'm trying to make sure we learn as much as we can about chemistry, division, multiplication, oceans, and outer space.  We're also reading a little about Greek mythology and the Greek language.  

That looks like an impressive list, but it's just the To-Do List, not the Done List.  My parents are leaving tomorrow for their mission in Tennessee.  My children will be writing them weekly while they are out.  It's a great way to encourage kids to write.  

So life is full and busy and wonderful, even though it's a crazy time in our lives.  We're so excited for all the wonderful things happening in the lives of our loved ones too.  A baby being born, another one on the way, moving into a home, going on a mission.  Wow!  I feel like we are so blessed.  

Good things are happening, not necessarily easy things, but good things. 



 

Home Is Where the Heart Is

We made it to our new town and apartment.  It's one of those large complexes with multiple buildings, numbered parking spaces and a swimming pool.  

We're on the third floor of a three-story building.  We live right off of a very busy road, but we don't hear much traffic because we're in the back of the complex.  

It only took us 3 hours to unload the truck.  The kids helped with the lighter stuff, but it wasn't long before they were tuckered out.  It wasn't much longer before James and I were tuckered out, but we still had half a truck to unload. 

 Logan found his robe, his Nexus and a comfortable(?) spot. 

 Unloading stuff into the kitchen.  

From our balcony we have a nice view... of another building in our complex.  In every direction there's another building, except out the back, that's the parking lot. 

We're very much in the city.  The only thing we're missing are the skyscrapers.  James and I are not city folk.  We're very much county folk, but we're trying to enjoy the advantages of city life, like having everything so close.  

Another advantage of city life is...

 the HUGE library, just blocks away...

 with a splash park across the street.  

 First, the library. 

The kids love it, of course.  They went straight to the magazines.  Our last library didn't have any kid's magazines, that we ever saw anyway.    

This library's children's section is about the same size as our last library, the entire library.  

What else was nice, was the fact that this library is in the same county we were in when we lived in the area 3 months ago, so that means that we didn't have to get new library cards.  Our old ones work just fine.  

Now on to the splash park.  It's a place where water squirts out of the ground and kids run and play in it.  There's not much else to tell, so I'll just show you the pictures. 

Then Taylor got too cold and we went home.  It was close enough though, that within a matter of minutes, the kids where home and warm and dry.  

So we're here starting another rotation.  We've survived another move.  Two down, three to go.  It's okay that we're not in Oak Harbor and it's okay that we're in the city because we're together and after all, home is where the heart is and my heart is with my family.