mt. st. helens

the fox family traveled south to mt. st. helens on friday. gabe had studied about the volcano and was very interested in everything to do about the eruption and every other aspect of the volcano- so what a great opportunity to take in! it was a long, long 2.5 hour trip to mt. st. helens visitor center with a little somebody in the back seat asking about every 5 minutes are we there yet! i always thought that was a little funny until i had the someone asking that question! but finally i got to say we are there! the day was perfect for mountain viewing, it was warm, clear and sunny! it is hard to get all three in one day around here, so we lucked out! we started out at the visitors center where we took in a film on the eruption and the days that followed, exhibits laying out the events that happened, a walk through the wetlands and animals that inhabit the area, and i was also able to get conned into purchasing some souvenirs for our little cherubs!! sucker!! after knocking out the visitors center we ventured another 45 miles into the heart of the blast zone!! now that was pretty awesome - even after almost 30 years there are still numerous trees scattered about like little toothpicks, although a lot less than the days and years right after the eruption! we arrived at the johnston ridge observatory which offers an excellent view into the crater of mt. st. helens-after snapping a few kodak moments, proof we had been there we decided to take in some hiking in the area. the hiking right around mt. st. helens was closed due to snow still on the trails, but unfortuately we didn't find that out until shawn had journied back down to the army to get the backpack!! oh well, a little extra exercise never hurt anyone! so we got a few tips from the forest rangers on where to head and they led us in the right direction. we traveled to the coldwater lake area which is only a couple of miles from the volcano and hiked for a couple of hours!! the hike started out pretty average, but within a few minutes we had some excitement! gabe spotted a snake which was right in the path of daddy and grady, and oh my goodness was there a scream that came from our little boy which i had never heard before!! our fearless little grady seems to be quite frightened of snakes! he screamed, stomped, ran, cried - thankfully that seemed to scare the snake into the other direction! so we got grady calmed down and reassured him that the snake didn't want to see him either and headed off again, praying to not see another snake!! we made it to the top of the huge hill/tiny mountain which offered an awesome view of the surrounding area and a small peak of mt. st. helens. we saw all kinds of deer and elk tracks - rubs on trees from the deer and elk and one more snake!! oh dear, this one really sent grady into orbit. he was told it was dead because daddy had accidentally stepped on it, but while gabe was holding onto it, grady decided to go in for a closer look and it miraculously came back to life!! it took a lot longer to calm him down this time. grady and i decided to sit on an old log and entertain the wilderness with our off key singing- where there were no more snakes around- while gabe and daddy went exploring to the snow line. there was just too much opportunity for seeing another ferocious snake! after the explorers made it back to us, we headed back to the army, but not before mean daddy took a long flower and rubbed on the back of grady's legs while yelling snake - yeah that was hilarious!! mom has the bruises on her legs to prove how hilarious grady that it was -- he couldn't scale mom fast enough! after we had stopped cramping up from laughing and finally got grady to see the humor in it, we headed home - a wonderful day with lots of memories!!