So Aaron ended up getting me a real rose, not just artichoke!
But I must explain why. Normally, he either picks flowers (none here though) or he buys a potted plant. He's among the camp that believe it's better to have a living plant if you spend the money, not something that just dies. He was looking at the little yellow flowers in pots, but Adele was insisting on these big bouquets of roses that were 20 bucks. Too expensive! he told her. Her reply was "But Daddy,
every princess has a rose."
Yesterday, Adele and I wanted to do something nice for the veterans. And we love to make cards. We made 50 valentines, along with heart shaped lemon flavored sugar cookies (with blue sprinkles from Aaron's birthday). I forgot to take a picture of the cookies before we ate them. And the Valentines. But I did take a picture of the Valentines we made for Aaron's co-workers.
It was so much fun to give Valentines out to veterans. Some of them couldn't figure out why a little girl was giving away her cookie. "No honey, you eat it, it's yours." Others walked past her without noticing, until she loudly announced "Mommy, they walked away too fast." Then they would hear her and turn around! But most of them noticed her, since she is the only kid around. And she would walk quite boldly up to them and hold the Valentine and cookie out to them. She didn't talk, she just won't talk to strangers (adults, that is - she is very open with other kids). Although she did admit her age to one person, her name to another, and even gave out 3 requested hugs. The best part? The look on her face. Her excitement. She was so excited to give. That evening, she said the dinner prayer and prayed "we're thankful we could do something nice for people we don't know and some people we do know, and we're thankful we could make Valentines." So I think it really made her feel so good to do something for others.
For Valentines, we went on another of our excursions. The plan was to go to
Crater Lake, but the roads were just too icy. It's been snowing up there (mostly rain, a bit snow that doesn't stick down here) all week long. So we didn't quite make it, but did plenty of other fun things on the way.
First we went to Mill Creek Falls and got stuck in the snow. We parked on some snow that was a little deeper than we anticipated. In fact, we were able to park, get in, move the car around because we were afraid it was sticking out to far into the road, and drive again, before it got stuck. Luckily someone quickly noticed and said it happened all the time there (thank goodness, we were sure feeling dumb). And he said he always carries a shovel. He dug us out, and directed us how to drive our minivan out of the snow. It took a few digs and hard accelerations, but we got out just fine.
The hike to Mill Creek Falls was interesting. We were the first ones there since the last snowfall, and it didn't even look like we were supposed to hike it. At some points, the trail was completely covered by trees.
In this picture, Aaron on the left side carrying the kids, trying to go around all the fallen trees. Fallen just from the snow! Luckily it was only a 3/4 mile hike to the falls, so we weren't too afraid to just turn around if it looked like the wrong way. On our way back from the hike, we did run into some later hikers. These guys were scouting the area to see if the water was high enough for them to go kayaking.
Didn't ever think about water activities in the winter. But I guess that's what is fun about this area. They put on a bunch of warm insulating wet suit type of clothing too. Those are white water kayaks. (Notice they are much shorter and wider than the kayaks we used on lakes and oceans).
The hike was so worth it.
Mill Creek Falls. No crowds. No guard rails, so we really had to watch the kids. It was just a steep drop off into the gorge. The water was very abundant and full.
Barr Creek Falls, just a few feet of hiking and you could see both falls. Again, just past these rocks is a steep drop off into the gorge. The waterfall starts higher than I first realized. If you click on the picture you can possibly see that the top of the falls is actually cut off. This was even prettier than the first falls. It sort of staircases down until it hits about where you can clearly start seeing it, then drops off. So beautiful. If you ever drive 62 to Crater Lake, don't miss this. It's just right off the highway (literally just around the corner) and a very short, easy hike to the falls.
We went back to Union creek for a hike in the snow. Luckily we were able to walk in snowmobile tracks. Otherwise, powder would have been too deep for us to walk in. It was waist high for Adele. (She is impervious to getting cold and wet if it means walking through a few feet of powder). I really felt like a sled dog. We have been having trouble getting Adele to walk (it's all psychological I think, because she can tromp through the snow just fine until it seems like something's not so exciting, then all of a sudden she can't walk ONE step). So I pulled her on the sled, which was much easier than dealing with "I'm too tired to walk!" She's also too heavy to carry. I pulled her most of the way until her hands were frozen.
Everytime we moved, (we were walking in that snowmobile path) the snow would pile up onto the sled. I would knock it off, but it would pile back on within a few seconds. She didn't mind it for a very long time. But her cotton gloves aren't waterproof, and she had to hold onto the handles to keep from falling off. That old sled still says "Jerin" on it. I guess it was my brother's sled. It still works great. We made it almost all the way to the river.
This is the Rogue river where it is calm. Most of it is more like it's name. A little bit more rapid, and all gorgeous. Instead of throwing rocks here, I threw snowballs in the river.
On the way home, we did a quick stop at the fish hatchery, since Adele never tires of feeding the fish. Oh, she loves to feed them.
We had a great Valentines and hope you did too!
