Family Wanderings

Ok so I admit it! Our family L*O*V*E*S road trips! Recently, we had an opportunity to head over the mountains to the other side of Washington State. The weather pattern changes were intense! We left Chehalis while it was rainy and gray, headed up over White Pass, past the skiers,  where it was snowy and blue and over the mountain and down into scrubby pine trees, awesome rocky cliffs and sagebrush with very warm and sunny weather! It is amazing how in 3 hours you can be in a totally different climate. Washington State is such a lovely place! We had a great day, listening to a few great sermons, stopping at places along the way and visiting with friendly strangers.. enjoying our favorite 'Belize Esh Music' and spending time together..

Heading out Highway 12 toward the mountain

There's the snow line!

We never grow tired of these snow scenes

 

A frosty mountain lake

We drove past the skiers...

 Up even further.. and down the other side of the mountain pass..

Into the glorious sunshine and the distinctly different terrain..

Beautiful!

 

 

We love the 'Big Sky' on the eastern side of the mountains

I remember that color of blue.. we saw it in Belize!

lovely farmland outside of Yakima

Over the hills we see the windmill farms.. these things are HUGE! Don't know

much about them but we suppose they capture the huge amounts of wind found

near the Columbia River and used for a power source. These things have got to be

at least 100 ft' high!

Kinda distracting to drive by..

Laura gets a peek at the great Columbia River

The flowers were so beautiful.. there were some (wild phlox?) that grow in bouquets..

We had to stop and get a closer look

'Ok girls, back in the truck!' :)  Uh oh, Grant is out also..

he found some lava rock, sagebrush and some limestone

The 'bouquets'

Breathtaking!

We found a great out-of-the-way State Park near Vantage, WA where we ate lunch and let the children explore.. Grant even got to throw in his fishing line!

 

Gracie finds a friend! No, we did NOT take him home with us!

Back up the mountain!

Here comes the snow again..

The kids wanted to jump out and wade through the snow one more time..

 

..and snap a few pics

Grant follows in his brother's footprints so as to not get snow in his non-snow shoes! :)

back down the hill..

 

Picturesque Randle, WA

A herd of elk

 

We came across this old condemned set of cabins from yesteryear...

With a timeless gospel message leaning up against the dilapidated building..