Vacation Day #6

This is how Mallory and Sarah started their morning off on Thursday!!  Lying in the sun, watching cartoons in the great room!!!

Shortly thereafter it was time to say goodbye to the Blocks, who had to head back to Canby for a soccer tournament!!!!  We are thankful you chose to spend your vacation with us!!!!

We decided to spend the day driving the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway down Century Drive.  We left our cabin and the first view 11 miles down the road was Mt. Bachelor.   There wasn't much snow left on the mountain, especially when we are used to seeing Mt. Hood on a regular basis.

Next was the South Sister and Broken Top mountains

The view of South Sister from Soda Creek Campground

Tyler and Ryan in Spark Lake, with South Sister and Broken Top in the background

Tori, Ryan and Tyler in Devil's Lake  (which was FREEZING COLD)

Tyler, Tori, Sarah and Ryan in Elk Lake

We stopped for a history lesson at Elk Lake Guard Station which was built in 1929 and has been refurbished back to its original state.  We took a tour of the station, and learned about what it was like in the 1930s in the cabin.  A woman's life was HARD work, and the childrens weren't much easier.

In front of the refurbished Guard Station.

The forest rangers told us that HUNDREDS of tadpoles had recently hatched and if we walked a short distance down the trail from the guard station we would see a bunch of frogs along the creek.  Sure enough, as we headed down, it looked as if the earth was bubbling....HUNDREDS AND HUNDREDS of frogs were along the shore.  Tyler above with one he caught.

Ryan with his catch of the day

Tori with her catch of the day

Ryley, Sarah, Brandon, Tori, Matt, Ryan and Tyler at Little Lava Lake

This stop was voted one of our worst parts of our vacation.  We saw a sign that read "Osprey Observation Point", and pulled into the parking lot...kind of...there really wasn't much of a sparking spot, but a dirt circle that lead to a trail head that said it was 1/4 mile to the point.  Always up for an adventure, we headed down the trail, which was definitely much further than 1/4 mile, and in the end found NOTHING.  Tall grass, lots of old pilings....not a single bird of any kind.  

We will from now on refer to this as "NO OSPREY POINT"

Our last stop along the scenic byway was South Twin Lake!!!  What a GREAT final destination (thanks for the suggestion Mechelle!!!).  In this picture you can see way out in the center of the lake some little dots....that would be the heads of all of our family (accept me of course....someone has to take photos ....and in truth, I'm more of a sit on the shore and read a book kind of gal, than a swim in the COLD mountain water gal)

Ryley and Tyler heading out on the lake for a paddle boat adventure

On the left, Ryan and Tori.............On the right, Sarah and Brandon...........Front and center, some random snorkel dude

Brandon and Sarah paddle boating on the lake

Ryley and Sarah coming to shore

One of the highlights from the day (which probably says something really bad about my character...but I love free entertainment) which Ryan titled "It is all fun and games until the floating trampoline gets popped by the kayak".   Now, lets see if I can give you a visual of the event, since the only photo I took was of the aftermath, and then I was too busy watching the looks on the parent's faces to shoot any more photos....

See, the yellow and blue object...that is a huge floating trampoline, that you can rent for $60 per day from the South Twin Lake Resort.  On top of that trampoline, originally, were 6 or 7 kinds having a great time, when along came their friend "Peter" (yes, that is his real name as I learned later, and I'll let you know how at the end of this little story), in that bright orange kayak.  Note that he was rowing straight toward the above mentioned floating trampoline when the pointed nose of the kayak imbedded itself into the trampoline and then the kayak was quickly ejected when the large WHOOSH of air came barreling out blowing a spray of water with it.  Next came the panic shouts of the kids on top "JUMP OFF!!! JUMP OFF!!!  IT IS POPPED!!!  JUMP!!!  JUMP!!!"  Then came the shout "someone's got to tell our parents" as one brave (or who knows, he could be the troublemaker of the bunch" yells "I'LL DO IT"  swims quickly ashore, headed to a group of adults who weren't witness to the event, because they were having a picnic among the trees and not on the beach for the show.  Next came the solemn faced woman, walking towards the resort...and the solemn faced man who went out to inspect and then the finale` to the whole debacle....From one of the trampolinists than had to jump off, to the kayak er "You know Peter, you are probably going to have to pay for this!"

So, you know how karma works.  You sit at a lake during the day, enjoying the free entertainment (knowing that I'm probably going to go to hell for being so amused by someone else's misfortune) and within the same day, karma strikes back and we have our own misfortune to deal with.

You see, after the lake, we headed home, had dinner, we made dessert and then, just when we were headed downstairs to what we deemed the "man cave" to watch the movie "Coach Carter" (which we HIGHLY RECOMMEND) Matt and I hear the kids shouting "MOM, DAD, COME QUICK,  THERE IS A BAT IN THE HOUSE!!!"  We come running up the stairs to find a bat flying around the great room and kitchen (did I ever mention that the bat exhibit is my FAVORITE at the zoo????).  So, the only thoughts I had was #1 -- How cool is this adventure....then #2  How on earth do you catch a bat when there are such high ceilings???  There was no need to worry....the log cabin's high ceilings have bat defense built in.  Apparently while flying between the great room and into the dining room, the bat hit one of the log posts and knocked himself out.  I'm not sure if that is exactly what happened, but ..........

The next thing we knew, there was no longer a bat flying around and the last place he'd gone was the dining room.  Matt pulled out the hutch, and sure enough, there in the corner was the bat.....

Lying flat on his back and not moving.....

So, we came up with the idea to take a large plastic cup....and the pancake spatula that has holes in it and scoop him up.  That seemed to work, and it became obvious the bat wasn't dead when it started moving around in the cup.  Matt with his MAD bat catching skills had saved the day, and above, Tori, Ryley and Ryan are trying to sneak a peak through the holes in the spatula at the bat.

When Matt turned the cup over, the bat decided to use the holes to hang from.  Of course, that is when I asked him to lift the spatula up because I HAD  to have a photo for the scrapbook!!!

Then it was out onto the deck, to send the bat on his way.  Unfortunately, the bat decided he enjoyed hanging from the spatula and was in absolutely NO hurry to leave.  This is when the pancake spatula became a bat launcher  (MacGyver would be SO proud!!!)...and the bat was sent flying.