Mt. Rainier Trip

We don't have any big vacation planned for this summer, so we thought we'd do a mini day trip instead. Our destination ended up being Mt. Rainier. Jeremy and I have gone before, but the kids had never been there. We left mid-morning to venture out on our 2.5 hour drive to the mountain. After grabbing our chocolate donuts and chocolate milk we were on the road. We decided to go the scenic route, which seemed like a great idea at the time...little did we know that when we got into the Park and went to make our turn-off onto the road toward Paradise (it's where they call the location of one of the visitor's center, ect...) the road was closed! It had major damage and couldn't be driven on at the time. SO, the detour they took us on took us totally out of the park all together and had us go around the mountain to the other entrance. It was on the other side of the mountain! If we would have taken the non-scenic route, all city route, we would've been fine. Anyways, that made the trip a little longer, but it was still great. The kids did wonderful with no crying, just a little whining on the way home from Miss Samantha. Collin was an angel. I don't think we heard a peep out of him the whole trip! It was a long day, but everyone was happy. And now, every time we see a mountain in the distance, Parker gets very excited and yells "mountain" while pointing at it. He was really impressed, apparently.

So, we took a lot of pictures, but I couldn't decide which ones I wanted to post. There's a lot of good ones :) So, here's the ones I chose, but there's still a lot...I'm just warning you.

Here we go!

We FINALLY made it.

Our first stop at a view point. The mountain is so pretty!

Our second stop on the way up to Paradise. You can see the waterfall in the background.

Jer and I at a way too expensive lunch...A hotdog (and only a hotdog) for $5.50?! You gotta be kidding me!

Sam checking out the top of Mt. Rainier from the visitor's center.

It was so green and beautiful! The summit is in the background...

Our cute baby boy! Jer took the extra weight of him that day. He's too heavy for me!

My sweet family. If only Parker would cooperate!

We found a few patches of snow. It was fun to play in it because it was so darn hot.

There was this map on the floor that the kids had fun playing on.

View of the summit of Mt. Rainier from Paradise.

In the Inn, they had this fun table and chairs. Jer felt like a King!

What a fun family day!