Weekend Update

This weekend has been quite a strange one. Aeryn was supposed to fly home on Friday. After picking her up at the airport, we were going to head straight on a camping trip to Crater Lake where Jim was going to run a half marathon on Saturday morning. She had loved Crater Lake when we went last year and was really wanting to go back. Friday was going to be a long travel day for her (7 hours on a plane + 2 hours home in the car + 2.5 hours to Crater Lake) but as it turns out she didn't travel at all. Her dad thought her flight was the following day and so she never made it onto the plane. Needless to say, I was an emotional wreck the entire day. I miss her and am ready for her to be home. Her flight has been rescheduled so if all goes well she'll be home Monday (fingers crossed).

As a result it took some effort for me to be really excited about our little trip. Jim had a meeting at work so we weren't able to leave until about 6:30 which meant we were setting camp up at 9:30. Then we got up at 6:30 to take him to the run shuttle. Jim hoped to run it under two hours so we planned to kill time until about 10 thinking that would give time for the run and shuttle. We spent the morning going back and forth between little walks/drives around the area, the campsite, and the shuttle stop wanting to be easily found when Jim was done. There was spotty cell service in the park so we had no way to get in touch with each other.

Ellie and I got ice cream at the lodge and sat waiting for the runners to be bussed back, but it was getting awfully close to the time we had to be out of camp. We went back to tear camp down and get the car loaded.

After a morning of waiting, and passing time, and more waiting, we finally found Jim having beat his hoped for time. He came in 16th overall and 4th in his division. The run was evidently full of elevation change and quite hard. He's pretty awesome, if I do say so myself.

Of course we stopped at the sign, though this time it was on our way out of the park. By the time we left wind had blown in a bunch of smoke from a not too distant fire and the entire area was filled with haze. 

As Ellie and I drove around trying to kill time, she took this picture of the lake. I thought it turned out pretty good. You can see the beginning of the haze rolling in at the top right corner. By afternoon the lake was hardly visible. 

In the afternoon we hiked to Plaikni Falls. We did this hike last year and loved it. The reward is far better than the effort put in and it's a great one for the littles. There were dozens of little blue and purple moths flying around the wildflowers which Ellie found to be quite fascinating, though she was disappointed once I called them "moths" instead of "butterflies."

Ellie was also able to participate in the Junior Ranger program at Crater Lake. This makes 5 JR programs she's done thus far. We are all big fans of this program and think everyone with kids should try it out. She proudly wore her badge for the rest of the day.

After driving home later than we planned, and a quick dinner out (hallelujah), we are home and ready to crash. It's been a tiring 36 hours for all of us.