An Excursion to Moulton Falls

On Monday, I came home with one of those sudden needs to be outside. Since there is no baby yet, we decided to take a small trip. We headed north, past Battle Ground, to a place I went often while I was in high school to swim and cliff jump. It is a park at the place where Big Tree Creek meets the North Fork of the Lewis River. I like it because there are some nice little water falls and the river and forest is beautiful.

Since it is still early spring, the water level is quite high. This is a picture of what is actually a waterfall that is about 10 ft. tall in the summer. There is so much water right now that it is currently a raging rapid.

We then walked over to see the nice bridge that crosses the river. This is the area I used to swim and jump at. I even had friends that liked to jump off the bridge.

Here is the larger of the waterfalls in the park. My friends and I also swam a lot here. We liked to climb the falls and jump off the top. This time there was a big tree lodged in the falls.

I liked the look of the water:

Here is me climbing on the other side of the falls:

Ruth’s mom really enjoyed the fun things we found along the trails. Here are some photos of Ruth and Rosanne examining some moss and lichens.

We also found mushrooms, moss, and lots of early spring flowers like Avalanche lilies and Skunk Weed (amongst others):

We had a very nice time and it only hailed for a minute or two. Most of the time it was dry and the sun even poked its head out. We enjoyed walking through the pleasant atmosphere that the forest provides.

Happy Easter from the Jensens

We just wanted to say “Happy Easter” to everyone. Easter is a great time of year to celebrate new life and, more importantly, the one who made it all possible. We are happy for all of you who read this blog and hope you are all doing well.

The most Easter thing we have done this year is visit the tulip farm in Woodland with Ruth’s mom. It was very nice and we had a good time. The flowers were very beautiful.

Rosanne is enjoying the colors:

I like the bands of color:

Also, we are still waiting on the third member of our family to show up and will continue to keep you informed.

A “week” to go

My due date is this coming Friday, and I am getting quite large. Dana thinks it is a good idea to document my belly before the baby comes and I get to looking more “normal.” So here are a few pictures of the course of my pregnancy.

July:

September:

October:

November:

December:

February:

March:

April 15th:

If you didn’t know better, you might think my belly is the result of not exercising and eating bonbons. But I really do have a baby in me.

We thought we’d include some of our favorite suggestions we’ve received for names: From Dana’s nephew, Daniel: Dinosaur Lego-Man. From my nephew, Matthew: Susan. From Dana’s sister, Elina: The Professor.From Dana's niece Megan: Kyle or Eric.

We’ll let you know if our little Viking is punctual or not.

George-Michael the Fantabulous!

George-Michael has some amazing skills. We took a few pictures so that you would believe us.

This is George-Michael’s beauty shot.

George-Michael has also taken up rock climbing. Here he is reaching the summit.

After his strenuous rock climbing, he decided to do some impersonations. This is his impression of the Millennium Falcon. (Imagine some space ship noises provided by Dana). 

A Wonderful Day & Wonderful Food

With how things have been going we have not had the opportunity to really do any day trips anywhere.  So here is a little about a day we just had last Saturday. It was a busy day, and it was a lot of fun.

We started our day by going down to the Farmer’s Market in Vancouver. We like to go and look at the fresh food, flowers, plants, produce, and art that people sell. The market has just started a new season, so we have not been in a while.

One of our favorite places is a food stand that is run by a family from Kazakhstan. They sell several Russian foods and some Kazakhstani food. It is very delicious. Our favorite is the Pelmeni (a dumpling-like food). I would have taken a picture of it, but we ate it too quick. This is a satisfied Ruth after eating them:

And here is Ruth with the “Meat Pockets” that we also got:

On the way home is when we saw the Viking Ship.

We also stopped by the soon-to-be-finished Vancouver Public Library, which was also be across the street from the old Academy and some pretty trees.

That afternoon, we went to another baptism for some children in our primary class. This time there were two boys. It was very nice to be able to go and see them.

When we got home we watched as several hailstorms rolled through. We enjoy listening to the rain and there has been a lot of it this month. But hail is uncommon. I liked the look of it on the moss:

Then we finished this wonderful day with a delicious dinner. We took the rest of the meat from this guy (sautéed in butter and garlic):

and put it on this, along with sauce, cheese, and lemon zest:

The result was one of the better pizzas that Ruth has made. It was great.

It was a good day.