Trip to Mount St. Helens!

I've always been captured by Mount St. Helens. It's majestic to look at but awe-inspiring to consider the power it contains!



I went to St. Helens the first time when I was 9. I went again after my mission with my geology class but fog covered the entire mountain and not once did I get to see it.

So we were so glad on Memorial Day that the weather was so nice for our family trip! Sterling had been watching countless St. Helens documentaries with me on YouTube.

In all her glory! You can see how the North Side is gone, though in the last 29 years, there's been a little build up!

Sterling had a good time!
Hyrum definitely added some new words to his vocabulary like, "mountain" and "volcano" and "pyroclastic flow." OK, OK, I made the last one up!
Mommy, pulling a Michael Jackson on our child and holding him over the railing! Not really, but it'd be quite the drop!

We were at the Johnston Ridge Observatory. This is the official national park observatory but it costs $8 per adult, the video they show isn't as good as it used to be and the learning areas haven't changed since I can remember. Next time, we'll just go to the lookout right next to it (free) and then go to the free visitor's center run by Weyerhaeuser (and someone else).

I think one of the highlights of the Johnston Ridge Observatory was watching Hyrum jump up and down on the little seismograph machine they had here. It was cute since he can't jump with both feet very well yet. Here's the video:



One more picture I thought was cute: Sterling with the volcano in the reflection of his glasses!

Here's the aforementioned free visitor's center:


Sterling was a great Eagle:

And I think Hyrum wanted to claw the inside of the claw!
The boys even had a chance to take a "ride" in a helicopter:


This photo just blows my mind. Hyrum looks like he's 14 or something. He's so skinny looking in this picture.

Of course, on the ride home, Hyrum kicked the bucket:

Hyrum falling asleep took about half the noise away, leaving me to just take in the wonderful scenery...

So I've been in 29 of the 48 continental states. And I swear Washington is the prettiest state around. Downside: to make things so green, we must receive excessive rain. But that's another story.

Just in case we hadn't done enough for one day, we got a couple of the $5 pizzas from Little Caesar's and ate them in the park.

Is it just me or is the best part of these the burnt cheese at the crust:

And, since it was a wild and crazy day (but oh so sweet), I figured I'd put one last picture of Sterling being wild and crazy (but oh so sweet).

- Brandon