Playing catch up with Sar's visit.

We have been on the go pretty much non-stop these last few days. I'm going to backtrack and start with Tuesday, when we took Sarah up to Timberline Lodge.

I did all of my crazy mommy running around Tuesday morning while the girls were both in school (this included taking Skippy BACK TO WORK - Yay!) and then once everyone was back home we had a quick lunch of thrown together goodies and we hit the road.

It was 55 degrees in The Dalles, under grey skies with a light drizzle. We were in high spirits as we headed out on the Mt Hood Scenic Byway from Hood River. The only bummer was that it was too overcast to see the mountain. It's really an awesome sight on a clear day but we figured we would take what we could get.

The drive was beautiful. Fall is funny here in the Pacific Northwest. You have tons of evergreens and then all of a sudden BAM! you'll have this bright beautiful yellow maple or red oak tree that just splashes color all over the place. It's awesome.

We stopped a few times to take pictures along the road. The kids were well behaved and Sarah and I had even more kickass sister bonding time. We really can talk about everything and anything. It made me so happy to have her here, driving along in the car next to me. We stopped off really fast a Trillium Lake and although the view left a lot to be desired (the mountain was totally covered with clouds and fog) and the weather less than appealing (steady rain), we were able to snap some quick shots and continue on our way.

In Government Camp we turned off of the main road and onto the road that leads up to Timberline. It was raining and about 45 degrees - already a ten degree drop from The Dalles. You pass three neat little waterfalls pretty much as soon as you turn off so we admired those and kept working our way up the six miles to the lodge.

After about three miles, I could have sworn I saw a snow flurry. And then another. I glanced at Sarah to see if she noticed it and saw her scanning the landscape as well. We said nothing to the kids.

But another half mile down the road there was no denying that it was SNOWING. The thermometer read 33 degrees and the most beautiful big fluffy flakes were falling from the sky and coating the trees. We grinned like idiots while the girls did their best to rupture my eardrums squealing with delight.

By the time we got to the lodge a few miles later, it was coming down fast. Talk about pretty - the girls were ecstatic and me and Sar were pretty darn tickled too. We hustled everyone into the lodge and explored for awhile, hit the gift shop, sat by the big fireplace, and then went upstairs and had salads, milk and cookies, and sodas by the big picture windows and watched the snow come down.

Then we went out to play. You can see a few pictures on picasa. Suffice it to say we were wet shivering messes by the time we got back into the car, but it was so worth it. We got to play in the snow in October! All in all, not that much fell - probably half an inch. It was just enough to make the place look like a fairy tale, and not so much that it was dangerous to get back down the mountain.

Considering we almost didn't make the drive, it was so worth it.

Yesterday we hit the falls. I'll have to write about that tomorrow. Right now I have to get munchkins into bed! Pictures are here: http://picasaweb.google.com/freckledmama/AuntSarahDoesOregon