We went for the first time to Shellburg Falls for the first time. The first part of the walk takes you down a gravel road surrounded by private land and cow pasture.
Once we got into the trees the boys enjoyed noting lots of different parts of nature. Here Avery checks out some different lichens.
Carson found this bit of long moss and immediately said, "look, I'm Uncle Kevin!" and he wouldn't let go of his "goatee" the rest of the hike.
The pictures don't do it justice, but this was a crazy stump hanging way out. If the tree had still been there I think I would have felt it was too precarious for safety!
Finally we got to Lower Shellburg Falls, a 40 foot, two tiered waterfall. This is the view from the top.
It's hard to see the entire Lower Shellburg Falls without scrambling down the steep bluff, but later when we came back from Shellburg Falls further up the trail, Travis did just that and got some pictures for me.
Then we headed up the trail off the gravel road to Shellburg Falls.
First sighting.
Not the best stopping spot (ahem, a little further down to get those trees out of the way please) but the boys were just about to run, so this will work.
Shellburg Falls is a 100 foot waterfall.
Such a cool canopy of mossy limbs.
The path goes around the back of the waterfall under the basalt overhang.
Around the other side of the waterfall and further up the trail.
Down the trail further is the set of stairs and as the trail wraps you back up and around to get you to the top of the waterfall, we climbed just enough altitude to find patches of snow left.
Shellburg Creek upstream of the falls.
After we took the trail past the waterfall far enough to hit where the gravel road we had previously walked on swung back around to meet the trail, we headed back.
The path under the waterfall was really muddy and slippery. A little nerve wracking for me with my little men.
This sign post isn't naming the falls, the arrow at the bottom shows this is the trail junction to the lower part of the falls down through that mossy canopy.
I love all the fuzzy moss covering everything.
A silly Carson. Look he's still holding the "goatee" in his hand.
A pause on the bench back down by the Lower falls.
Crazy kid.
The Lower falls again.
And that's when Travis made a dash down the bluff with my camera since he wouldn't let me go. I set up the camera for him and off he went.
Lower Shellburg Falls
I had the boys hunt the hillside while we waited for Travis.
By this time we had gorgeous evening light.
The boys all found sticks and decided they were hunters (elk hunter in Emmett's case since he has a bit of an obsession with that). I love the intensity on Emmett's face.
Such serious business.
How is this limb still holding on?
Now they're hammerhead sharks.
Back out on the cow pastures
The hike round-trip is 2.8miles although we went further so we maybe maxed out at 3.5 miles and the boys did outstanding. Look, they still have enough energy to run.
A beautiful, back-lit copse of trees.
Same copse, different angle
The end of the path is in sight. What a great hike and what amazing luck in the weather we had!!!
After our hike we went to dinner at our favorite Mexican restaurant, La Hacienda Real. On the way home Travis wanted to stop and pick up a cake since there had been zero time for him to make me one. I waited in the car while all my boys went in to pick one out for me.
When we got home Avery presented me (and Travis) with these talent show tickets. The boys had been working extremely hard, without being asked, to clean up the playroom the day before. Turns out they had a surprise in mind for me for my gift. Their first ever talent show (dancing was the talent). I know homes with girls often see talent shows rather frequently, but this was completely new for us. How cool that Avery even knew and incorporated the Comedy Tragedy masks in our tickets. (Avery's teeth don't lend themselves well to making an "sh" sound, so when he's sounding out words I see that a lot in his writing, hence show becomes sowe.)
They cleared the area and lined it the stage with all the old throw pillows that we've kept for them in the playroom. They had even hauled chairs upstairs for us.
Let the show begin!
At this point I started a video. It's 6 minutes, but it's (at least for grandmas) well worth the watch. The video starts with Carson turning the dial on the "radio"...
click "Vimeo" in the lower right corner to see it larger.
After their bows at the end of the video, they jumped off the chair a couple more times for the camera.
And then it was finally time for cake! What a great birthday! This really was one of my favorites with the great weather letting us have such a great hike and fun family time!
I met Travis in Institute at Oregon State University in 2001 and we were married Aug 2002. We have 3 boys, Avery, Carson and Emmett. I love photography and run a business, 
Travis is a dentist at 
Avery was born in Dec 2004 and is now 7 and almost a 2st grader. He loves being a big brother to Carson and Emmett.
Carson was born in March of 2007 and is now 5 years old.
Emmett was born in September of 2008 and is now almost 4 years old.
1 comment:
My favorite pics are the evening light ones on the way home. Of course, as one of the grandmas, the video was a hoot and grandpa could hear me giggling from another room. Great imaginations and planning on the boys' part. Love the radio and the Star Wars song.
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