Where's Abby (+ Dylan and dogs)

Dylan has never been a big birthday celebration guy. This year when I asked him what he wanted to do, he said something like, "I don't know. Maybe get some nice dinner around town somewhere?" But I on the otherhand  must celebrate birthdays. Especially Dylan's. This guy deserves a memorable celebration.  So I insisted we go to Crater Lake and it was so worth it. What an incredible, jaw dropping, thought provoking place. The first night, we sat enjoying the bluest waters with the perfect lighting. We camped at Mazama where we were all set up with our new camping boiler thing to cook up our freeze dried camping meals, new headlamps, coffee plans... and then ate some hot chili and a meal at the campground lodge. haha We at least enjoyed out coffee at the tent the next morning.  The next day was filled with three fantastic hikes to see the Watchman Lookout for epic views of this like 2000' deep, 7700 year old crater. Then we got a lovely wildflower loop and waterfall ...

Well hello, all! Remember back in May 2021 when my goal was to write a post a month? Here we are, 11 posts behind. BUT I think I've actually gotten the motivation now, folks. I've got a slew (?) of posts written and saved in drafts to grace your eyes in no time. You just wait. You can read all about our Washington birthdays, our Fairytale Forests, visitors' escapades, the peculiar story of Bayocean, Portland times... it's coming. So thanks to friends, Kaila and Chad, we made it on a skiing trip in January 2022. We were all booked for a lovely stay in Leavenworth, lift tickets purchased, dogs booked for their stay to just drop off for the weekend. It was just all so convenient! We were set!  Then the snow just kept on falling til the roads were closed to the mountain and resort, foiling our whole plan! We had a late, complicated night of 6 people trying to coordinate a new last minute plan. The crew came up with and followed through with a trip to Crystal Mountain the ne...