Mt St Helens

We have just recently come back from 4 days at Mt St Helen's (or more precisely, a state park just near by). It was quite awesome to see the volcano up close, and to see the devastation that is still evident 27 years after it's eruption.

This first picture is one of the first glimpses we got of the volcano. Mt St Helens is the hazy mountain with the flat top in the background.

We stopped at a lookout part way along the road, and took these photos with Mt St Helens in the background.

This is the closest we were able to go to the volcano. I took this picture at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, which is the last visitor center you can get to. The entire front (north) of the mountain is completely wiped out, due to the blast going out to the side instead of straight up.

If you'd like to read about the history of Mt St Helens and the 1980 eruption, you can see read about it at ... http://www.mt-st-helens.com/history.html

What amazed me is that you could see evidence still of the blast. They grouped the blast zone into 3 different zones. The first zone was about 6 miles around the volcano and it was called the Tree Removal Zone. As guessed by the name, the trees in this zone were totally destroyed. These next photos are from this zone, and as you can see there are still tree stumps left and the vegetation is slowly returning.

The next zone was the tree down zone, which was from about 6-18 miles. In this zone, the force of the blast knocked huge trees down as though they were blades of grass. Lastly was the standing dead zone which was from about 18-24 miles. In this last zone, the heat of the blast killed the vegetation but the tree trunks stayed upright.

Ben was most facinated by the "silent" zone. The people in the immediate vicinity of the blast did not hear a thing when the volcano erupted. However, people a few hours away reported hearing sounds that resembled thunder or sonic booms.

All in all, I loved this camping trip. I've been wanting to see Mt St Helens since we moved here and it certainly met my expectations. The scenery was definately different from what I've ever seen before.

I'll leave you with this last photo of the Toutle River. The river is actually very small, but the devastation around it makes it look huge from the distance. (I'm guessing that the mud flow followed the river path)

Geometry Lessons

Each night we hold hands and say grace before dinner.

Last night Ben was about to say grace when Lizzy exclaims "We made a circle!". Ben hushes her because they've been told numerous times that we need to be quiet for grace. Suddenly at the end of the table we hear Isaac muttering "Well actually it's more like an oval".

Ben & I grin at each other and he begins grace. However he adds at the end "And thank you for the geometry lesson".

My Favourite Photo

Every now and then I manage to get a photo which I fall in love with. This was one of them. It's from the farm yesterday, as Lizzy ran around in the Hay Maze.

I love how it catches the twinkle in her eye as she runs through the maze.

At the Farm

Yesterday we went to Remlinger Farm. We go a few times each summer, and the kids always have a great time.

Pony rides were definately a hit. Isaac waited on top of the railing, while Lizzy went around on her pony.

Isaac then got his turn, while Lizzy was lucky enought to get another turn.

I loved this photo. I'm not sure who took who's hand, but they stood holding hands as they waited for the canoe ride.

Two random photos from when they climbed the rock hill....

This was the expression of their faces as they waited for the pumpkin ride to begin. Within a few seconds they had huge grins on their faces. However by the end of the ride, Isaac was yelling at Lizzy and Lizzy was in tears. They had a huge argument because Isaac wanted to pull the lever to go up while Lizzy wanted to stay low. They went in separate pumpkins the next time around.

They enjoyed the carosel, despite that fact that Isaac is getting a little bit too big for it.

I explained to Isaac that he needed to look at his reflection in the camera to get a photo of him looking at the camera. This was the result...

Although Lizzy looks a little stunned, I thought it was a cute photo of Isaac.

4th July Photos

We had a very quiet 4th July. We just stayed at home and enjoyed a BBQ on the back verandah in the late evening. (Yes...these photos were taken around 8.00pm).

The kids enjoyed eating corn on the cob. It's currently in season and so very sweet and juicy.

As you can see, Isaac not only enjoyed eating it but he enjoyed making faces with it.

I had to show you this cup...Isaac kept on calling it all manner of names. It was the Independant Cup (my favourite), the Independance Cup and the 4 July Cup.

Gymnastics Camp

Something broke a long time ago on the kids websites, so photos have not been updated there in a very long time. One day that will be fixed and you'll all be able to enjoy photos again. As you will have noticed I have been doing a photo dump. I hope you have enjoyed getting some new photos!

This first post have photos from Elizabeth's gymnastic's camp. At the end of the week they did a presentation for parents and were awarded a medal at the end. This was one of her "moves" where they crab walked over the bars.

She was so proud of her medal. You would think that she had won some major prize. Lizzy wore it for the next 2 days, and showed everyone who we met.

Audio Options

Lizzy has a couple of movies which she enjoys watching. Every now and then she'll come and ask me if she can watch one of them but lately there's been a twist. Our conversation tends to go like this...

"Mummy, can I watch Cinderella?"

"OK. Go and put it on."

"Mummy, can I watch Cinderella in French?"

"OK. But you'll need to change the Audio Options."

"Thank you."

And off she goes and changes the language option to French (or Spanish if that's the mood she's in).

I'm not sure if she knows the DVD well enough and follows the story that way, or if she's actually taking in a little of the other languages.