Wangsgard Reunion--Part 5: Wahclella Falls Hike

Wahclella Falls is one of the very few hikes Damon and I had previously done in the Gorge. We hiked it 4 years ago, so it had been awhile, but we thought it would be a good choice for our motley crew of hikers. It's a mostly-shaded moderate one-mile hike that we thought would be appropriate for a stroller with rugged wheels.

Sadly, the trail that we remembered as being pretty wide and packed became much narrower and rockier than we had remembered. Many kudos go to Joette who stayed behind with Anya, who was not up for the hike herself. They stayed by the small river coming out of the canyon that we hiked into. We felt bad about mis-judging the hike. (Sorry again, Joette.)


Here's the crew starting out (with Anya and Joette still on the trail with us). I had Damon run ahead to take this photo to make sure that Katie was in some of the pictures . . .

. . .because here's where it comes in handy to have a sister-in-law who is an excellent photographer. Thanks to Katie we have way too many photographs of this beautiful hike to post on here, but I'm still going to try to put in as many as I can! I think that this post has more photos than any other that I've ever done. I hope you enjoy.

Christian found a fuzzy caterpillar.

Looking back on the trail, you can see Christian showing off his caterpillar to Uncle Logan and his dad (Jed).

More nature watchers:

The first waterfall we saw was coming down a sheer rock face as we passed by on a bridge. It looked like a fun--and steep--waterslide.

Here's the only shot of our entire little family. Too bad it's of all of our backsides!

Cascading down some rocky rapids:

I'm the far hiker in this photo, with my dad coming up behind me.

Here are Peter and Jed (with Kiera on his back) coming along a bridge and up the path behind my dad. (The cascades of 2 photos ago are just off to the left.)

Here come Gunnar, Christian, Jillaire, and Holly. At this point, that bridge is just down the hill behind us.

And here's Gumpin (my dad):

Finally, we made it to Wahclella Falls! Soren enjoyed the ride, I'm sure.

I love this photo of my dad and Maggie looking over the pool where the falls empty. Notice how my dad casually grabbed onto Maggie's hood, just in case. I love seeing how he displayed that protective instinct.

Another photo I love: Damon and his boy enjoying a rest after their busy hike. Gunnar was non-stop on this hike and Damon felt like he spent much of his time making sure Gunnar didn't fall off a cliff, or worse...jump. (More on Gunnar's hike in the next post.)

After a brief stop at the falls for photos, water, and granola bars, we continued on a loop that met back up with the same trail for the return to the trailhead where Joette and Anya were happily waiting for us. Hooray for all the hikers and perfect hiking weather!

Wangsgard Reunion--Part 4: A Fishy Start to the Day

Late Tuesday morning we piled into the cars--we managed to fit all 17 of us in just 3 cars, by the way (which is impressive considering that included 8 carseats)--and headed west through the Columbia River Gorge to the Bonneville Dam Fish Hatchery and Sturgeon Center. We first picnicked on the grounds and then wandered amongst the pools where we could see trout and giant sturgeon.

That's my mom in the purple standing next to my brother Logan.

See all those people in the background pushing strollers? That's us, too.

Joette, Kiera, and Gunnar check out sturgeon in the underground viewing area where you can actually see the 10-foot-long fish swimming about underwater. You can actually see one in the photo at the bottom of that window above Gunnar's head.

My mom, (Nana to the grandkids) obviously amazed by the sturgeon.

Katie, obviously amused by Nana.

Here we are checking out some trout. It was amazing that Gunnar never fell in.

From the fish hatchery we piled back in the cars for a short drive to a trailhead for a hike...which needs a post all its own.

Wangsgard Reunion--Part 3: Cherry Picking

July is cherry season in the Northwest. It came a little late this year due to the cold start of our summer, but there were plenty of cherries to be found when we all headed to a nearby orchard on Monday afternoon. We picked pounds and pounds of Van and Rainier cherries that lasted us for the rest of the week!

And, Katie took some fantastic photos of all the little cherry pickers who were up in trees,

on the ground,

or up in arms! (ha ha)

Want one?

It didn't take long for us to fill baskets and buckets and then head back to the scales and the cars.

These two girls loved picking. You can see that Maggie loved eating, too.

Wangsgard Reunion--Part 2: Face Painting

Aunt Joette (to be seen later as the clown "Cotton Candy") brought her face paints!

For a little fun on Sunday afternoon, my sister-in-law painted the faces of all the little kiddos. Adah got a spiderweb and a snake (not sure why she chose those as a pair). We didn't get a good photo of the finished product, but Joette had the snake appear to wind up Adah's arm, under her shirt, and then up her neck onto her face. Very cool.

Gunnar is a shark. A very serious shark. Can't you tell? (He actually decided he was done before the artwork was totally completed. He was happy with it and was completely devastated when I washed his face that night for bed.

Kiera (Jed's & Joette's) just has some fun flowers and hearts.

Maggie got a tiara.

Sorry...somehow we got no photos of Anya and Christian. I believe Soren was napping during this activity.

Wangsgard Reunion--Part 1: Holly's Blessing

From July 10 to 17 we had a rare occurrence here in the Gorge. My entire family came to town! My brothers Jed & Logan and their families had never been here to White Salmon or met Gunnar. Similarly, many of us had never met my nephew Soren or niece Kiera. The whole family hadn't been together in three years, so this was a big deal.

I have three brothers and we all live in different time zones. It took a year and a half of planning to finally find a time when we could all meet up, and it was great to have everyone here. MANY MANY thanks go out to our neighbors who let my family stay in their house while they were out of town. Between the neighbors' and our house, we had plenty of beds for everyone and we were right next door to each other for the week. It was perfect.

The whole gang: On the left side are my brother Logan, his wife Katie, and their son Soren. My brother Peter is standing behind Adah. My brother Jed and his wife Joette are on the right side. They are holding their daughters Anya and Kiera, respectively. Their son Christian is the cute goofy one in front. My dad is behind me and my mom is standing next to me.

We planned Holly's baby blessing at church to be the Sunday when everyone was here. This took a little extra planning with the lodging as our neighbors didn't leave town until we were all at church Sunday morning. So, more thanks go to our good friends the Potters for taking half the family at their house Saturday night.

My dad and brothers were all able to participate with Damon in giving Holly's blessing, the first one all of the family was able to attend.

And here's our little family at Holly's blessing. She's wearing a beautiful dress that my mom knit for her. My other girls were both blessed in dresses that I wore as a baby. Who knew I'd have THREE daughters. Holly gets a new dress from Nana as her special blessing dress.

Swimming Lessons!

Once back from the family reunion, it was time to literally jump right into swimming lessons. Maggie and Adah both took lessons this year and improved greatly.

Maggie is now much more comfortable in the water.

She was quite excited waiting in line to go off the diving board . . .

. . . but when it came to it, she needed a little help from her teachers.

Adah became our little fish this summer, really picking up skills and even passing the swim test to allow her to be in the deep end by herself. (That still makes Mom & Dad a little nervous, but she's aware of her limitations and is very careful.)

Adah had no fear going off the diving board. Here she is doing it on "life jacket day," but she happily goes off with or without flotation assistance.

Holly's First Smile

You know how your baby does some new little trick and your spouse never believes you? Well, lucky for me, Holly chose to give a true smile when my friend was watching . . . with her camera nearby. So, not only did I have a witness to back up my story, I had photographic proof!

Here's cute Holly grinning away on July 9, 2010.