life's melody : Mt. St. Helens camping trip

Thursday, my family and I drove up near Mount St. Helens, for and outdoor school. We got there pretty uneventfully, (besides leaving 4 hours late due to brake trouble!!), and set up “camp” in the dark. (Which is pretty easy, plug in the trailer, put bedding on the beds… J) We were meeting a family there, and it was awesome to hang out with them. We love those people!!!

The first day of outdoor school, we hiked around in The Twin Forests, which get it’s name from this: There was an old growth forest originally, then, Mt. St. Helens exploded, and destroyed the old forest. There are areas where the lava formed around trees, leaving strange tubes, and then the new forest grew eventually. It is now Twin Forests, one on top of another. J Isn’t that clear!!! Lol

Does anyone have any idea what was up with this tree?!? We found it in the woods,and couldn't figure it out!! :) ^

Later that day, we hiked the Upper Ape Caves, a one-and-a-half mile lava tube. There were 14 kids, and 3 adults in our group, and the rangers told us that it takes 2 ½ hours to hike it, (You have to come down 1 ½ miles, outside the tube as well). We decided to try to go faster than that.

The tube was amazing!! It was by far my favorite part of the trip. I managed to bruise up my knee, but still had tons of fun. J We made it back down in about 1 ½ hours!!! J We were awfully proud of ourselves. J (And the youngest was a five-year-old girl, she kept up with us the entire time, no problem!)

The next day was a guided tour of several different museums and different stops along the way to the mountain. We also took a guided 4 mile hike, around the Hummocks and devastated areas. (The areas that was legal. J And if you don’t know what a Hummock is, Google it!!! gotta love Google.). It’s amazing how bare the area is around the mountain still is. In case you didn’t know, Mt. St. Helens erupted May 18^th 1980, 32 years ago. I didn’t know that until this weekend either!!

I realized, yet again, that I totally L.O.V.E. hiking. It is awesomeness. I get to go on a 6 mile hike on Friday, and I am pretty excited. I already know that I am gonna be like really sore, but that’s ok, I was hiking!!!!! J

Boys will be boys, and if there's a tree around, they automatically think, "Let's climb it!!"

John is camera shy. I think he gets it from me. ^

A huge bridge. idk, I guess I thought it was cool?!?

I fell in love. with this bush!!! :)

Something to laugh about:

Last week my wife and I purchased a new computer. We ran into some difficulties while setting it up so we decided to call the customer support phone number we found in the manual.

I picked up the phone and called the number. A man answered the phone and I explained the problem to him.

He began rattling off computer jargon. This confused us even more.

"Sir," I said politely, "Can you explain what I should do as if I were a small child?"

"Okay," the computer support guy said, "Son, could you please put your mommy on the phone?"

Ok, here’s your challenge for today… Vote on the two photos below, and tell me which one’s your favorite!!! In the poll thingy, which is on the sidebar!!