Holidays

Mirror Lake and a Girl’s Day

Posted by Lisa Eirene

On Thursday I took Logan to daycare and then Miss B and I got to do our own thing! I packed up some stuff and we drove up to Mount Hood, listening to Beth Hart and Lucinda Williams CDs. Bella was super excited for an adventure!

It was such a nice day and I had the whole day to do whatever I wanted. I wasn’t really up for working out yet (still a little sick) but an easy hike in some fresh air sounded right. I looked around for some hikes near us but found that the Gorge hikes are still largely closed due to the Eagle Creek Fire last year. Multnomah Falls is open but not all the way. So I decided to drive out to Mirror Lake.

Mirror Lake has been on my To Do List for years! It’s a super popular hike, though, and so we’ve never done it. Thee’s not a ton of parking available and it always fills up fast.

I got to the trailhead at 9:20 AM and I got the last parking spot (barely).

Bella and I got ready and headed out on the trail. You cross a bridge right away and I had to kind of wrangle Bella to get up on it and walk across and then she was ok. We hiked through the forest on a pretty manicured trail and then crossed another bridge.

Bella did great! The trail started to climb a little bit but it was never too steep or difficult. I thought it would be a good hike for Logan to do but then we came to this little area of rock scramble:

It looks worse than it was but it would be hard for a toddler to navigate. So not sure if Logan is ready for this one yet,

After the rocks, there were some mild switchbacks. We hike through the old growth alpine forest. It was fairly crowded but not too bad. Not like I imagine weekends to be! We got to a fork in the trail and took a left across this bridge:

The trail climbed again through some more forest and then it opened up and I got glimpses of the lake. Oh, one thing to note: The mosquitoes were SUPER bad! I got a few bites! Thankfully I had some bug spray in my backpack and so I put some of that on (a little too late, though).

The trail goes around the small lake and then there are parts of the forest that open up to the lakeside and you get THIS amazing view!

HELLO! There’s the mountain! What a perfect picture, too! It was so pretty. And all around the lake there were swarms of butterflies EVERYWHERE! It was kind of creepy, honestly! So many!

I walked around the lake (it’s pretty small) and then headed back down the trail. All in all it was a really nice, fairly easy hike. It’s good for older kids and was good for dogs. It would be a nice place to hike in and have a picnic lunch by the lake. Don’t forget your bug spray!

We got back to the car. I had packed some lunch in a cooler but it was only 11am so I decided to just drive home and eat there. Home to have lunch, shower, nap (I was worn out!) and then I spent the afternoon at the Oregon Humane Society.

I did NOT come home with a cat. 😉 But there were plenty of adorable ones! I found one that I loved. But she was a) a kitten–and I think I want a cat that’s around a year or two old and b) she looked exactly like Yggdrasil but with gold eyes. It made me cry a bit when I saw her and I just couldn’t do it. I think my next cat will have to look different than my baby did, otherwise I think I’d feel too sad.

But it was nice to look around. There were a TON of kittens at the Humane Society!

FRIDAY

Friday I went to the gym and then I got to take my new car on a little mini road trip! Some friends came over and we went to Sokol Blosser for a picnic lunch and tasting. None of them had ever been there, so it was nice to share it with them.

We had various cheeses, hummus and naan, tons of fruit and crackers. It was such a perfect day for a picnic!

After that we spent the rest of the afternoon enjoying the sun and nice breeze at Stoller:

I stuck with water at the second place and they split a bottle of the Stoller Chardonnay (they all loved it as I knew they would!). It was nice just lounging in the chairs in the sun catching up with friends. I think Erika and I are going to do the Stoller 5k Race next year!

It was such a nice day! I got slightly sunburned, even though I used sunscreen! But other than that, it was chill and relaxing and perfect for my soul. 🙂

Happy 4th!

Posted by Lisa Eirene

I’ve been looking forward to this week for months! I took some vacation time (Thursday and Friday) to have “me time” and then ended up getting sick over the weekend and was home on the couch Monday. So my work week consisted of Tuesday! That was it!

I had a few things planned for my time off. Michael had to work, which was a bummer, but at least he got the 4th off. We got to do some fun stuff. (And he kindly put together our new bistro set that I bought for us to spend time together in the evenings this summer.) It looks so cute:

For the 4th of July we spent the day pretty low-key. Logan and I got up early and had breakfast then went for a walk/jog on part of the neighborhood loop we used to do a lot (and stopped for coffee and lottery tickets!). We did about 3.5 miles and he started getting fidgety in the stroller around mile 2.5!

The rest of the day was easy and quiet. Then we went to a friend’s house for a holiday BBQ. Logan’s BFF was there and they played so hard. Logan was covered in dirt, bubbles, chocolate and god knows what. 😉

Our friends have a nice little enclosed yard in inner SE Portland, perfect location for all things Portland. And the yard was perfect for a little BBQ. They did burgers, chicken, sausages, veggies and veggie burgers. People brought sides. I made a Greek Orzo salad that turned out really yummy.

Someone made a blueberry pie and homemade cupcakes (both were delicious and decadent!). It was a bit crazy with two 2 year-olds just running wild, but…that’s what summer is for, right?

Only a few minor meltdowns…it was way past Logan’s bed time so we headed home. Long before any fireworks really started (but I did bring the pop things that you step on and they pop–the kiddos LOVED those).

I still wasn’t 100% from my gnarly cold so It was ok with me to go home before the fireworks. Way different than the old days when our neighborhood would get the GOOD stuff (aka illegal fireworks from Washington) and it would be a show late into the night. I was in bed at my normal bedtime this year, with my book. PARTY ANIMALS!