Ape Caves

I can't believe August has come and gone!! We have been busy with visits from Harry and Kathy, Chelsa, and we also made it to the Dew Tour. I am done with school until September 27th and Chase is still working hard pushing through the summer term. After this summer he will have 4 terms down and 8 more to go! Time has flown by!

When Harry and Kathy were here we all went to the Ape Caves at the base of Mt St. Helens. They are lava caves that were created when the volcano erupted and the average temp in there is 42 degrees. It was so crazy just walking underground through the caves but definitely a fun expedition!







It was so dark in there that if we all turned off our head lamps we couldn't see an inch in front of us! There were a couple tricky parts that we had to climb up but with a little teamwork we all made it safe.








Towards the end of the caves was a little opening above us and that was the first light we saw in an hour and a half!




This was the hole we climbed out of at the very end! It was so crazy to be down there without light for that long! We all had a great time and happy that we made a safe exit!!




After the Ape Caves we had a BBQ at the Trail of Two Forests. This is less than a mile from the Ape Caves and when the lava came through the forest it made casts around giant trees and now you can actually climb in the middle where the tree once was!!

Chase starting his descent...


Adalay climbing in the cast of the tree.


Finally at the end! They are not long, but not for the claustrophobic!!

Dew Tour

The weekend I finished my summer classes we celebrated by going to the Dew Tour. The Dew Tour makes stops in Detroit, Portland, SLC, and Vegas. They have a ton of events and the ones we went to were Skate Park, BMX dirt, Skate Vert, and BMX park. All of it was so awesome!! The guys in all the events are SO good at what they do and that makes it so fun to watch them. This year was Shaun White's first appearance in 3 years on the Dew Tour so that was cool to see him in Skate Vert.



Skate Park




BMX Dirt


While we were at the Skate park prelims Paul Rodreguiz signed my ticket, and not only is he one on my celebrity crushes, but he also ended up winning the event! Garrison was so excited to see Shaun White and was able to have him sign his hat. Chase was great and saving our seats so I surprised him with signatures from Shaun White and Bucky Lasek! We had a lot of fun that weekend and excited to finish out the summer strong!

Deschutes Rafting Adventure!!

Last Saturday we had the opportunity to go back to Maupin and raft the Deschutes River with Justin, Caraston and a few other friends. We were all really excited to get out on the raft and attach the rapids! We left Happy Valley around 7:30am and headed out to Maupin. By the time we got there the sky was bright blue and no clouds to be seen. We met up with the other half of the group and after situating the cars at the top and bottom of the river we were ready to hit the river around 11am.


During some of the slow parts on the river we were able to get out of the raft and jump into the water. We had such nice weather while we were out and the water felt so good and cooled us off.

This is Justin mid back flip jumping off the raft to cool off! (Complements to Chase who got the action shot with the disposable camera haha)



We were able to stop mid way through the trip and have some lunch. The spread we had was so good! It was a perfect break to refuel us and prepare us for what was to come next!




After hitting a few rapids,lunch, and some swimming breaks we got out of the raft to check out Oak Springs. This was the biggest fall/rapid of the trip and the picture doesn't do it justice. While we were watching other rafts attempt it, we only saw a couple that did not lose anybody out of the raft. I don't know if it was the best idea to see the other people go before us because it caused some uneasiness within our group haha!

Here is our group as we hit Oak Springs! As you can tell we all have different emotions going through our heads!

After this moment we lost a couple people and had to recover their bodies out of the water! Luckily no one was really hurt other than a bruised elbow. The next photo is in the heat of the moment when everyone was getting back in the boat.

Then after we realized that everyone was ok, we were able to relax and compose ourselves and laugh at what had just happened. All of us had different stories of what they though happened, but all we wanted to do was go through it one more time!

We also took some time to hike to some natural slides. Here is Justin just about to go under the water. Nate our guide was so funny and wanted to make sure he did the slides and the waves at least 5 times before we left!

We had such a great time and definitely want to make a trip every summer! This is a photo of our group when we were all done around 5pm. The trip was a whole day adventure and so much fun! As Nate said the tradition is to stop at DQ and get a Blizzy in Rhody, so of course that is what we did and it was a perfect ending to our trip!