Swan Island Daliah Festival & Hiking Saddle Mountain

The weekend before school started, my dear friend and I went on a little excursion to celebrate her birthday. We started out at the Daliah Festival in Canby. 

Oh my goodness we were in Daliah heaven!

Friends are the flowers of life!

From there, we went on our way toward Seaside to hike the Saddle Mountain Trail that has long been on my bucket list of Oregon hikes. Round trip, it is about 5 miles.

There were many beautiful sites along the trail. At the picnic bench pictured below, we found ourselves pondering a life question: How did they get the picnic benches so far up the trail???

Seriously, if anyone has an answer for me, please let me know. 

We kept going, up and up, and then we reached what we thought was the end of the hike.

A little perspective on how big our universe is...

God's creation is so amazing!

I was feeling on top of the world, and then, I looked to my left...

and realized we were not at the top.

This hill may not look that bad, but oh my word, it was the most difficult hike I have ever done. To put it in perspective, when you zoom in on this picture, you can actually see people hiking on the trail.

I thought it was never going to end. It kept winding up and up. It was so steep, there were chain link fencing put over the trail to help the hikers with grip. 

Getting to the top was worth it though. Look at the view! We could see the ocean too!

I am so glad for my dear friend Kate going on adventures with me! It was a grueling hike on the way up, but the way down was just as bad! I discovered that I, apparently, have a knee problem! My left knee hurt so bad only on the down hill that I couldn't bend it. I fell quite a few times from the awkward gait I had to take on to avoid the pain. Luckily, Kate is on the up from knee surgery as well, so we were both slow pokes on the way down.

We finished the day with some Taco Time and a Candy Man ice cream cone on the gloomy beach.

We earned that ice cream!!

I'm looking forward to our next adventure!

Happy Sunday!

Autumn is Here

Well, Autumn is here and even though I am always sad to see Summer go, 

I guess I am welcoming it with open arms...literally.

It's officially time to get the leaf blower out.

 Oh and while I'm at it, please take in the glory of my new dress from Old Navy.

I've decided that on Sundays I am only going to wear dresses because I never get to wear them.

Currently, however, I am wearing sweats trying to gear up to clean the kitchen and the bathroom

before hubby gets home from his coaches meeting.

Buh-by now!

Happy Sunday & Have a great week!

New School Year for Teachers

As the new school year begins, I find myself in contemplation quite often.

I feel myself rapidly approaching a new phase of life. 

I've been reflecting on the pasts 5 years since graduating from college and getting married, and I was thinking that sometimes I feel like I live in a dramatic T.V. series...not because my life is dramatic, but because it seems like each year I am greeted with a new challenge. Just like in a T.V. series, each season there is a new conflict to be solved. I start to adjust to life being one way and then a wrench is thrown in my path and everything is shook up. For the average person, these things that stress me out and give me anxiety would probably not be a big deal at all. 

One slightly unkind interaction with another human causes me to wish, quite often, that I could just disengage from society and go be a hermit in the mountains (with my husband of course). Unfortunately, life doesn't work that way. People are going to hurt you, change is going to happen. Sometimes it will be for the better, sometimes it won't. But one thing that is for certain is, that life goes on. I am grateful to have such supportive family, friends and co-workers in my life that God has gifted me to help me along this journey.
While most people tend to reflect and set goals in January when the official "new year" starts, to me, the new year will always be in September.
This year the word that is on my heart is Grace.
I have been given grace in abounds, and I pray that God would help me to show it to others when I am feeling spiteful or bitter, or hurt or angry. Because, ultimately, grace is what matters.

Happy New School Year!

Yellow Bottom Camping 2017

Every year, Joel and I camp at Yellow Bottom Campground in Quartzville. 

This was our 3rd annual trip and the first time we have brought friends with us!

This is my happy place.

We only stayed a couple of nights this time. Our first afternoon there, we spent time doing one of my favorite things: floating under the sun!

There were so many butterflies! One landed on my floatie :)

We drove back a way (for cell service) to make a phone call, and we practically had to drive almost all the way back to Green Peter Reservoir, but look how beautiful it was! It was so quiet and the color was so pure!

On our phone stop, we got out and gathered some things for our Nature Mandala's. 

We also challenged our hubbies to find us some things. I so wanted a picture of the two of our guys picking flowers for us, but I couldn't snap it in time!

The idea for making mandala's came from the book "How to be a Wildflower" by one of my favorite artists, Katie Daisy.

Oh yeah, getting crafty!

Mine.

 Jeannine's

Van's.

Van's x2.

Joel's.

Joel found these fox gloves for me :)

Reading and playing games are a must when camping.

We may have brought to many sausages.

We experimented with melting glass.

I made my husband take some tent selfies with me before bed :)

All the extra sausages made for some delicious breakfast burritos!

Our glass experiments.

We left a floral arrangement for the next campers to come to our site.

Before we left, we floated and explored the creek one last time.

Some jumping happened.

Rock art.

One of the best views in the world.

Good times with good friends! 

Until next summer Yellow Bottom!

Do you have any favorite camp sites?

Happy Wednesday!