Annual Ryiniry End of Summer Bash

Our dearest friends. Friends whom I dream of cohousing with when we retire. Seriously. And if we get sick of each other we will also co-own an RV that we can take a break it. But mostly just always be together in. :) Labor Day weekend brings on a sense of dread for me. The end of summer. Back to school. I'm never ready. I could spend every day at home with my entire family for the rest of my life if I could. Seriously. So that's what summer is to me and then going back to school means going back to routines, schedules, events, all sorts of things that I never mind...but my heart is in the freedom and closeness of summer.

So we started spending Labor Day weekend with our nearest and dearest to distract ourselves. And distract, we did. Day one we headed out on the most gorgeous hike up to Winchester Peak. It was amazing. And quite the feat for the littles (4, 5, 6 and 7 years old!). It was a difficult hike and they did great. I, on the other hand, had several moments of shear panic because this hike is not for the faint of heart. There are several (not exaggerating) death defying little slopes where I was dizzy from the drop and the cliff alongside me, the trail gives way to a scree slope, and then the next part is a staircase of rock cliffs that we scrambled up. Of course, the kids loved it - I was panicked. In retrospect, we are all alive still so we had a great time!

Of course we had to start out with a short bakery stop with a little coffee on the side.

 The aptly named Blue Lake. The amazing thing about this hike is that you start out so high already and then hike a mile and a half above the treeline and then spend the rest of the hike along the ridge looking over Washington and Canada. So beautiful!

 Girls taking a break. Boys enjoying the view.

 The kids were thrilled with the snowline we hiked into. :)

 One of the treacherous areas. Seriously. That Blue Lake? Straight down. STRAIGHT DOWN.

 

 Success! The old fire lookout. You can camp in here - first come, first serve. Which seems a little dicey with the alternative cliff-side sleeping arrangements.

 Their own handwritten little signatures is just about the cutest thing ever.

 Then we drove up to Artist Point to see if we could do another short hike. Of course we had a to stop to see if the lifts were running yet. :)

 The amazing view from Artist Point! So the hikes were a no-go :)