Ponytail Falls

School is out and summer is here! So far we are off to an excellent start. Friday night we threw a party for the boys and some of their school friends to celebrate. Pizza + ice cream sundaes + Don't Eat Pete + lots of free play = loads of fun for boys!  It's something I've been wanting to do for a while now and this is the year that we finally made it happen.  Hooray!  I harbor hopes of making it a tradition...

 Then on Saturday we drove into the Gorge (Columbia River Gorge for any non-locals ;) and went on a family hike.  Jake wanted to check out one of the many,many waterfalls in the gorge and it was a fantastic idea! We couldn't have asked for better weather and he had scouted out the perfect waterfall called Ponytail Falls.  The trail actually starts with another waterfall called Horsetail Falls. The hike up to Ponytail was kind of steep and mainly consisted of switchbacks, but our boys handled it fine. It was incredibly picturesque and I'll let the pictures do most of the rest of the talking:

This just might be one of my favorite pictures ever!

There's a view of the Columbia River.  Gorgeousness!

Here's Ponytail Falls.  You can see that the trail takes you right behind the falls:

Here's a closer view of the trail behind the falls.  It was very cool:

I couldn't get enough of the views of the Columbia.  This one is from the other side of the falls:

We ate lunch back down at Horsetail.  It was pretty amazing to be eating our lunch with the waterfall right there.  I felt very blessed.

After lunch we spent some time at the pool at the base of Horsetail.  The kids loved it!

  

I love this little outfit on Caden.  It was one that Daniel wore often when he was around this age.  It skipped Lucas because it wasn't the right season when he would have fit it, so this is the first time I've seen it in quite a while.  Fun for me!

Love all these men in my life!