The girls had 'purple cows' at a 'soda shop; in Joseph. The purple cows were good, but the place couldn't make a malt to save it's life. They should definitely stick to coffee. ;)

 

Mt. Rainier National Park

The last leg of our trip was to Mt. Rainier National Park. We stayed at the campground at Ohanapecosh (Which is a delightful word to say. Try it!). We loved our campsite, and the park was just amazing. We hiked. We looked for signs of animals (We saw scratching on a tree and asked Carolyn what she thought made it. She said, very matter of factly, "Maybe a bear. Maybe an elephant."). I think it was the best part of the camping trip for all of us.

 

The girls snuggled up taking a nap in the tent.

 
Carolyn in her Jr. Ranger class.

 
Because I like the name.

 

 

 
Carolyn reading, "Who Pooped in the Park" during a break on our hike. Thank you Todd and Jamie for our field-guide to Skat. It came in handy. :)

 

 
Carolyn talking with a ranger about the work she'd been doing in her Jr. Ranger book.

 
Andy liked the swirlies in the trees. This was coming into "The Grove of the Patriarchs:" A grove of trees that were literally 1000 years old.

 

 
The suspension bridge over to the island where the biggest trees were was the truest suspension bridge I've ever been on. You definitely only wanted ONE person on it at a time (unless one of those people was a four-year old).

 
Who says Republicans can't be tree-huggers?

 
The Douglas Twin Firs were the oldest in the park.

 
Andy and I became completely fascinated by "nurse logs." We'd seen them before even in the old-growth forests here on the island. We'd also seen huge trees that had fallen over or been cut down and we wondered why nobody was using that perfectly good firewood. What we learned was that felled trees serve the forest as the basis of new life. Animals make their homes in them, mosses grow, and eventually new trees form on top of them. The Grove of the Patriarches was, in fact, a forest that grew up upon a forest that had perished long before it began growing. So we were looking at thousands of years of growth that came from thousands of other years of growth.

 

 
Andy and Abbie on the suspension bridge

 
This was the river behind our campsite. We fell asleep to it every night. Good stuff.

 
Home, sweet home.

 
Abbie in her punk-rocker outfit. Eek! I think she's texting!

 
Our first night at the Mt. Rainier national park, we picked up a book so Carolyn could become a Jr. Ranger. When we explained that Park Rangers help take care of animals, and keep the parks beautiful and the people in them safe she decided she had to be a Jr. Ranger. So we filled out the book. We went on our hike(s). She happily colored the pictures, and did her drawings, and answered questions. We worked diligently the whole time we were there. She was SOOO EXCITED when we finally went to turn in her work right before we left. She was a little intimidated by the concept of taking an oath, so Andy kind of did it for her (which reminded me of him saying my vows for me at our wedding. ;)). After she got her badge and certificate though, she stood tall and smiled with delight any time we called her a Jr. Ranger.

 
We're so proud of our Junior Ranger!

 
The moutain wildflowers at Sunrise were gorgeous. Andy and I were both completely enamored by them.