Columbia River Gorge!

My brother has now left for his mission. He is currently in the MTC, but will be serving in the Farmington, New Mexico Mission. He is the first and only sibling to serve a mission, so this is all kind of new to us. We are so excited for him!!
Before he left, we did one last big family vacation to Hood River, OR. It was absolutely amazing!! We debated forever and ever on where to go, and I'm so glad we ended up where we did. There was always the factor that the ages and life-stages varied widely, so we wanted somewhere where everyone would have fun! This was the perfect place for it!
First I would like to talk about the house we stayed in. It was so perfect! It was secluded, beautiful, and had a killer view! Here are a few pictures of us enjoying fun times at the house:

It just doesn't get much better than this...

Our first full day there, we got up and went on a hike to Wahclella Falls. I have NEVER seen so much green in my life! Every rock and tree was covered in green moss, and the massive trees were the tallest I've ever seen! It was a short 2-mile round trip hike, so it was easy enough to take the 1 and 2-year olds on. Also the 7-month pregnant girl. It was beautiful!!! And the waterfall at the end was breathtaking. I can't even come up with another word for it. It was huge and powerful, and fell into a pool that looked like a stormy sea. Just the coloring of the cloudy sky and the mist coming off the falls made it seem unreal. These pictures could never do it justice.

 I mentioned this trip was fun for the whole family...well, if you knew my husband and brothers you'd know they like adventure. Well a boring old 2-mile scenic hike is just not adventurous enough for them, no....so they found their own adventure!

Preparing for the plunge, and....

Nope, they couldn't just hike. They had to jump in to the deep, choppy, mysterious waterfall waters. Stupid and dangerous most would say...but I stayed close and kept them in check. At one point they started swimming out towards the waterfall but after one, ahem,  ~choicely worded~ shout from yours truly, they immediately swam back to shore and got out.  I wasn't about to let the father of my child drown on vacation...

On our way back we took a different route and got to cross some cute bridges and see another little waterfall.

Here are the girls at the end of the hike, drinking their water. Oh they are just so cute!

The next day was supposed to rain a ton, so we decided to make it an inside day. We ended up just hanging out around the house and getting some grocery shopping done. Some of us also went to see a movie while the girl's napped. This day, as it turns out, was beautiful, and in the evening we went to a little park and flew kits and played around, then went and got pizza after.

The next day is when we got poured on, and we had planned a bunch of hikes that day...we even wore our swimsuits so we could play in the water! But it was cold and wet. But we still had fun!

Multnomah Falls, most photographed in the U.S.

Siblings!

The guys hiked to the top whilst the women-folk hung out in the visitor's center to get away from the rain

Rainy picnic! I actually ate in the car...I was too cold!

Onto the next waterfall! I honestly don't remember the name of this one...but it was pretty!

Haddy in her poncho, riding on Paco's shoulders

Ok so this picture is blurry, but it is the ONLY PROOF I have that I actually got in the water!

I didn't get "all the way" in like a couple of other guys I know...but I still got in!

 Yet another waterfall, I can't remember this one's name either. This was the bottom, Haddy and I didn't hike to the top with everyone else because Haddy's shoes and socks were soaking wet by this time.

Cute little Elder Cook!

Of course, who goes to see a waterfall on a freezing cold day and doesn't get in under it? Oh, everyone probably, everyone but my husband.

So that was day three. Day four we drove into Portland which was about an hour away. We first went to this beautiful rose park. It was free and taken care of by the city! It had roses everywhere, and a pretty, grassy amphitheater.

After the rose gardens, we went to lunch on this hip little urban street full of shops I wanted desperately to go spend money in, but I withheld! We ate at a place called Pepino's that was delicious and cheap! Then we headed to the zoo. I can say by far the Portland Zoo is the most beautiful zoo I have ever seen!!! If you are ever there, check out the zoo!!

By this point, Haddy was sick of us trying to take pictures of her, so she started closing her eyes every time we told her to smile and look at the camera!

If you look closely, you can see a giraffe photo-bombing this picture...

After the Zoo we got dinner and went to this famous bookstore that was MASSIVE!! It was fun to walk around and see all the books. They also had an awesome gifts section! All in all our day in Portland was a success.
The next day we headed over to Mt. Hood which, if you haven't seen it in person, you should. It is incredible. I can't even describe it, just go there.... There was a resort up there called Skibowl that had a bunch of fun stuff to do.

This was a little swing carousel. Haddy was SO EXCITED to swing but then when no one pushed her she got super mad, hence the screaming face.

The terrified look on Haddy's face says it all...

After Skibowl, we went to a Trout Farm and fished for our dinner! I got nowhere near the fish, and Haddy was also terrified of them, so we watched from a safe distance. But the grounds were beautiful and we had a fun BBQ after. Our fish took forever to cook so we had a fun Cook-family game of capture the flag while we waited! It ended quickly when my dad face-planted after trying to catch Brad on the slippery grass...but it was fun while it lasted! And our food was delicious! Oh, and my dad did survive his epic crash.

Ta-da! Justin's 18-incher!

Our beautiful picnic area!

The next day was our last there and was by far the hottest. The guys went on a river trip in the morning, then did a hike to Oneonta Falls in the afternoon. Justin said it was the best part of their trip, so I was sad I didn't go! But maybe we can go again someday.

This wasn't your grandma's hike!

Log jam.

Oh this picture makes me so sad I didn't go!

Swimming at the Falls

We were going to go to the beach that night and swim but by then everyone was pooped and wanted to get packed so we could leave early the next morning.
Our drive home was quite adventurous. We'd been driving for about 7 hours, and it was a hot hot day. We were hearing some weird things with the car and decided to try and make it to Twin Falls which was about an hour away and have it checked out because we were in the middle of nowhere at that point. We didn't make it. About 40 miles north of Twin Falls our tire blew and we crash-landed in the town of Bliss, Idaho and stayed there for 6 hours. We were lucky for several reasons. One, we didn't die. Two, the tire blew very close to an exit that had a gas station right off of it. It was our home for the next little while. Three: the gas station had a little "restaurant" that served shakes, fries, and....FRY SAUCE!! Thank you Idaho for being awesome. That made our stay there so much better. Well it was 108 degrees, and my dad got heatstroke, then had to hitch a ride to Twin Falls from our crazy weird mechanic, rent a car, drive it back to pick us up, and have 7 of us head home in a 5-seater SUV. Not comfortable. But we made it home just in the nick of time for Brad to give his farewell talk the next day!
Anyway, our week was amazing. I love my family. It was a great kick-off to Brad's mission and though we will miss him dearly, are so proud of him! Yay for family!