Hike @ Gateway/360 Park

When I went back to check the blog, I was surprised to find it had been nearly a year since we last hiked HERE.  This is such a great park with a ton of different trails, and it's only 20 minutes away.  We decided to check out the right side of the park this time, which we didn't do last time.  We started at the parking lot, then hiked from checkpoint A to S to R to P, before heading left then down the main trail back to the parking lot; in all we did nearly 3 miles.  We didn't encounter too many folks until we got back on the main trail, where we saw some mountain bikers and a large group of folks on horses.  Harvey wasn't too sure about the horses. I don't blame him, though, they are huge and very loud!  The puppies had a fantastic time.  I hope we can get back again before another year passes by!

The fallen leaves were huge!

Such a happy girl! Harvey is sniffing with his big nose!

Hike at Tiger Mountain

Saturday morning dawned bright but cold (30 degrees) when we met up at 9am with the kids and Teresa (with Aspen & Logan) at Tiger Summit State Park.  Everyone was bundled up and Nova looked like a cute little polar bear in her outfit!  We parked at the upper parking lot then made our way to the Iverson Trail.  The trail started climbing right away, but it wasn't too steep.  We were all warm by the time we got to the top where it evened out for a bit. We crossed three bridges and saw many mushrooms along the way.  We had the trail pretty much all to ourselves for a while.  At a little over 1.5 miles, we turned around.  We had hoped to see the old trainwreck, but it was not to be found. The WTA said it was 3 miles roundtrip, but upon further research that night, another hiking website said it was closer to 5+ miles roundtrip, so apparently, we stopped too soon. We still enjoyed the hike & had some fabulous view of Mt. Rainer in the distance.  

Nova is ready to hike! She loves it in the woods. 

Can't get enough kisses!

Mt Rainier!

Hiking is tiring. Must. Nap.

Tree hugger baby!

Pumpkin Carving

On Sunday afternoon Corey, Terrell & Nova came by with the giant pumpkin that they got at Picha Farms a couple weeks ago.  Nova enjoyed watching the pumpkin carving part, but she did NOT enjoy the being IN the pumpkin part. We did get a small smile out of her, but she was ready to get out! Poor Nova, her parents are so demanding.  She sure is a cutie, though!

Happy baby when Grandpa holds her.

What's going on?

Using an ice cream scoop made the scooping go fairly quickly.

Nova checking out the guts.

Not enjoying this part!

Not a happy face!

a little smile!

Now get me out of this thing!