Magnus’s Baby Blessing

We had Dana bless Magnus in church a few weeks ago. Will and Courtney and Whitney were able to come out as were Dana’s parents and his brother Anton. Magnus made sure to soil his first outfit so that we had to improvise a new one moments before we left the house. But we weren’t late to church which was good. Thank you to everyone who came to show their love and support! Now the good part: pictures.

Cousin photo op.

This is one of my new favorite pictures.

Here we are with Dana’s Mom, Dad, and Step-mom

While he managed to get his first outfit (a green polo shirt and khaki pants) dirty before we left, the blanket my mom knitted him was clean. Thanks, Mom!

Here is what he ended up wearing. Apparently he liked this one better.

Thanks, everybody!

Birthday Adventure in the Beautiful Forests of Washington

June 17 is my birthday. This year I wanted to head to the great outdoors. So, I decided to go north and see some waterfalls that I hadn’t seen for a long time. The last time I saw was up there was with my brother Steen before I got married.

Magnus decided he would dress quite snazzy for the occasion:

We made a brief stop at Eagle Cliff and I caught some nice bugs, including a toad bug. Then we went to Lower Lewis River Falls (43 ft. tall). It was very full with water at this time of year. And the color of the water was amazing. It is also a loud waterfall and Magnus didn’t seem to appreciate that much.

This is the view looking at the downstream at the top of the falls and a close-up of one part of the top (that is a lot of power).

I saw this little guy hanging out on a tree and thought it was a neat silhouette:

Next was Big Creek Falls (125 ft. tall). It is a hard one to see, because of the angle, but it is also a short walk. The lighting and spray did make a nice rainbow at the base of the falls.

Here I am with Magnus. He wanted to be carried for a little while so he could look around better.

The third waterfall was Curly Creek Falls (75 ft. tall). This one is a bit unique in that it has a natural arch over it (actually, I found out latter that there are two arches, the second is being covered by the high amount of water follow). This is a pretty cool waterfall.

Here is a close-up of the main arch:

To get up to here, we drove through Woodland, but to get home we continued around and drove home through Carson and the Gorge. On that route you come to this wonderful view point of Mt. St. Helens.

One of the things I like about the mountains up here is that doting them are very prominent peaks. Unlike mountains in places like Utah, the tallest peaks are much taller than the surrounding peaks. This gives the Cascade Range a different feel than the Rockies. And it makes the big mountains stick out better:

Going home through Stevenson, WA, I wanted to see this strange rock that I saw on a site that I like. The site called it the Skamania Petroglyph, but no other info was given. It sits outside the Skamania County Courthouse and has no identifiers or info there either. I hadn’t told Ruth what I was looking for, but she saw it first and said, “There’s a weird rock with doodles all over it.”

And this picture is for Rosanne who enjoyed seeing horsetails while she stayed with us, waiting for Magnus.

That night my family came over for Birthday celebrations (more here). It was a good birthday.

Happy Father’s Day!

Now it is Father’s Day and we want to tell our fathers to have a Happy Father’s Day!

This is also Dana’s first Father’s Day, so that is new and different.

So, to all the father’s out there:

Ivan and Lynn,

Steen,

Scott,

Will,

and Dana

Happy Father’s Day!

New Cousins Meet, Water Falls Off Cliffs, and Fish

Last weekend we had some visitors. Will and Courtney came down from Cheney to meet Magnus and say hello to us. We had a lot of fun while they were here. But it was probably most fun to see Whitney try to interact with Magnus.

She really seemed to like him. She would point at him a lot and say “bbe.”

At one point Will and I had a baby battle. I came out the loser when Magnus spit up.

On Saturday, we all went to the Gorge. We did some of the main stops along the Historic Highway. First, we stopped at Crown Point to see the view. It was a very nice day and the point wasn’t even windy. Because of the nice weather here were a lot of motorbikes and bicyclists  in the Gorge.

This picture is from the top of the Vista House.

We then did the short walk to Latourell Falls (one of  my favorites).

Multnomah Falls was next. We all walked up to the bridge and got some nice pictures. I then ran back to the bottom to get a shot with everyone else still on the bridge. Magnus was a big hit with many of the other visitors to the falls. And from what we could tell he was pretty much the youngest person there.

We got lunch at a nice little burger and ice cream place in Cascade Locks with the intention to eat in a nearby park. By this point in the day the wind had caught up to us and lunch ended up being very blustery. But I did get this picture of Ruth and Magnus in front of the Bridge of the Gods (it seemed fitting).

After crossing to Washington, we went to see the baby salmon in the fish ladders at Bonneville Dam. Here is Will and Whitney enjoying the fish:

That evening everybody, but Ruth (who appreciated the rest) went to a park near our apartment to play on the playground. Though Magnus can’t move around yet, he enjoyed it when I drove the stroller across the bumpy grass.

Sunday, we had Magnus’s baby blessing. And that will be another post…

Magnus: Installment I

Last Friday, Magnus turned One Month Old! Here is a short video compilation of some of the best photos from the 1st month:

A Journey through Magnus’s 1st month.

Good Friends and Good Times

A group of my high school friends got together last weekend to party with a friend of mine visiting from Texas, Jessica. She was the instigator of all of us getting together when she lived here, so we are glad she came to visit and gave us an excuse to get together again.

We had delicious burgers and dogs complete with chips and potato salad. Thanks to Danielle and Andy for being our gracious hosts! And it was great to see everybody!

These are all the children we have collected over the years. Pretty cute.