Camping at Mt. Hood

We had a phenomenal time camping at Mt. Hood this weekend.  We stayed at a beautiful and quiet campground just past Government Camp.  We literally had to keep pinching ourselves that we only drove an hour and a half and felt like we were really on a vacation! 
Saturday, we drove up to Timberline Lodge (it was the face of the lodge for Stephen King's "The Shining").  This is also the highest point that you are able to drive on Mt. Hood.  The drive and views are lovely.  There is a lot of skiing/snowboarding on Mt. Hood, so we hopped the chairlifts with the summer ski/snowboard crowd and made our way up the Magnificent Mile!  It was the first chairlift ride the kids have taken, and they LOVED it.  Apparently, our kids don't fear heights.  Aiden enjoyed playing in the snow and was also very intrigued with the snowboarders who were doing tricks and flips.  I think we may have peaked his interest (no pun intended) in snowboarding!  The views from 7,000 ft + were incredible!
After the chairlift ride, we headed to a nearby trail head to hike Mirror Lake.  This was a 3.2 mi "moderate for kids" hike (all up hill to the lake, all down hill to the car).  It was beautiful and felt so good to be hiking.  Aiden is an awesome hiker and lead the way as our Hike master!  He did an awesome job, and set a great pace!  On the other hand, it's never a good sign when your 4 y/o complains of being tired 50 ft into the hike.  Needless to say, I had an unexpected 35 lb girl on my back the whole way up!  Whew!  She was singing her heart out the whole way. :) 
Our campground was only 2 miles from Trillium Lake which had incredible views of Mt. Hood behind the lake.  There are no pictures of this because my camera battery died (bummer!).  We spent a tranquil Sunday morning there this morning enjoying the lake.  We hiked the 2 mi trail around the lake which was pretty flat and alternated forest with lake/Mt. Hood views.  Ava walked the whole 2 mi hike although it was at her own pace (think turtle) and included various role plays:

Ava: (with a bent stick over her head):  "Mom, you say something to me, but I won't be able to hear  you because I have my headphones on."
Mom:  "Ava, isn't this a beautiful day to spend hiking?"
Ava:  "What?  I can't hear anything you're saying because I have my headphones on."

The stick then proceeded to be a headband, an ice cream cone (of which I had to do a whole role play of ordering ice cream and eating it and then taking my turn as the ice cream lady etc...  Note:...THIS Mom ice cream lady drives a fast moving ice cream truck and customers must run to catch up with the truck for their ice cream!  I think we may have gained some ground during this short time until she switched role plays)  We also played, "You be the teacher mom, and I'm in your class", "You are my primary doctor, and I'll be waiting to see you because I'm tired of walking" and too many other role plays that I think I have blocked out of my head right now.  I CAN say that despite it seemingly taking forever (Brien and Aiden were nowhere to be found as they lost their patience with it!), she walked the whole way and TALKED the whole way.  At one point, she was carrying a longer stick that had roles such as baton in a circus, conducting baton at the symphony and hiking stick on a hike.  She was walking along slowly immersed in her role play when a friendly black lab ran up and took the stick out of her hands and ran off!!  :)  She thought it was funny, and we decided that was a great role for that stick.  Of course, there were plenty more to choose from as well.   Ava  is fascinating to me with her role play and continuous story-telling and imaginative and creative narrations.  This morning, I was glad I had nowhere else to be but walking the trail around a beautiful lake, in beautiful weather with 3 of my favorite people (and then just me and Ava).  Listening to her is a comedy show in itself!

Aiden and Ava at Timberline Mt. Hood

Mt. Hood

Ava and Aiden looking at Mt. Hood

Snow!  What fun!

Ava met this dog in the ski lodge and wanted to have her picture taken with it! It's posing so nicely, it looks fake, but it was a really gentle LIVE dog. :)  She loves dogs.  This one was probably 3x her size!  You never know when Ava will decide she wants her picture taken, but this was definitely on her terms! :)

Part of the fun of hiking is the fun things you can find in nature.  Aiden hid in this tree and popped out at Ava.  She thought that was so fun, she had to do it too!

Peek-A-Boo!

Brien at Mirror Lake

Ava in her "fort."  She calls the tents "forts" and loves to read books and play in the tent.  We could barely pull her away this morning to go to the lake!

Aiden in the tent he and Brien share.  Aiden has the set up with the lantern, so before he goes to sleep, he has a cozy tent in which to read!  Cool set-up.

What there are no pictures of are the Mom and Dad relaxing together by the fire after the kids are in bed enjoying the peace and quiet of "couple time."  I treasure these times with our family enjoying beautiful Oregon and everything it has to offer!  I think the next camping trip will be on the coast!  I want to hear the ocean from my tent!