I took advantage of the beginning of fall and drove to Larch Mountain for a nice hike in a lush forest – and a gorgeous panoramic view of 4 different mounts around the Columbia River Gorge. The panoramic picture I took is too big, but here are a couple of the views I saw.
This is a northern view, across the Columbia River. The peaks are (left to right) Mount St. Helen’s, Mount Rainier, and Mount Adams.
This is a view east of Mount Hood.
In October, Krista and Elaina surprised Teresa by flying up here and showing up at her work with balloons! Teresa said she saw them and just started balling! We had fun the next few days and went to the Oregon coast (Cannon Beach) for a cold but fun day at the beach.
And last week I had my 4th part of National Board exams. It was on Friday and Saturday. My birthday was on Saturday so I was able to go out with Teresa after the hours of testing were all finished!
Yes, we saw a movie - and yes, I had pumpkin pie.I decided that I would celebrate my birthday week for the week after my birthday (since I was just studying and stressing the week before). So it just ended with the fun opportunity of having Jon McBride (my sister Rachel’s husband) in town for a Weber State football game. We went out for dinner last night and took the train around downtown. Jon, as always, was great company to have around. It was endearing to see him talk with such beaming joy about his little girl, Fia, and his new baby boy, Sam.
After dinner, Teresa was pretty excited when we stopped by St. Cupcake just before it closed – honestly, we all were. Half way through Jon’s first mini cupcake he paused and said he was just trying to understand how it was possible to make it taste so good!
