Hiking in the Gorge

Saturday afternoon held another first for baby Sofia. Jac, Ethan, and the kids were headed out to the Columbia Gorge to hike to a waterfall and invited us to join. We loaded a sleepy baby into the car (perfect timing for her to sleep through the whole thing!) and headed east.

The photos don't even BEGIN to do the gorge justice! The drive is so stunning and beautiful! One of my favorite parts of going to the waterfalls.

Zia on her mama's back. That blue winter suit is just too stinking adorable!

First hike as a family of 3. Sofia fussed a bit (just enough to make her mama stress about wearing her and almost crawl back in the car to head home...) but she soon feel fast asleep once we got walking. She slept the whole hike and almost the whole way back home!

I wasn't surprised to see so much more water, but I was impressed with the power of it! Way cool to see the difference in the waterfalls between the rainy and sunny seasons.

It even snowed on us through the second half of the hike! Tiny little flakes that stuck to our hair but melted away on the ground.

Horsetail Falls in the Columbia Gorge

As I mentioned last week, I spent a day with P, Z and Jac out at Horsetail falls hiking and exploring. I love, love, love being so close to them that we can go on day trips, and I absolutely cannot wait for our little one to be able to join us (have I mentioned this yet?? ;)

After a picnic, we hiked .4 miles up to Horsetail falls - a beautiful waterfall you can walk behind (that I'd love to actually swim in someday on a really HOT day). P, Jac and Z continued on another hike, which was on an unmaintained steep trail that I started to attempt and then decided sitting in the trees listening to the water fall wasn't such a bad place for me to be after all! Someday I will do that hike, but I'm realizing that I've definitely got a limit and it's getting a little bit smaller the more pregnant I get!

Here are some photos from my camera of our day:

This photo doesn't do it justice, but the lighting coming through the trees as we came around the bend to find Horsetail Falls was quite amazing.