Bend It Like Sidnee

OK, this post has nothing to do with soccer. In fact, it has nothing to do with sports. I just needed a catchy title to rope all of you blog stalkers in and then the pictures/subjects will do the rest.

Sidnee and I just finished our 10th anniversary celebration get-away this last week and we had a great time. Our actual anniversary is not until November but the weather sucks in November so we decided to celebrate early. Sidnee's mother was coming out for a wedding and we talked her into coming a little early to stay with the kids. I'm sure she regrets agreeing to it now but we sure enjoyed ourselves and would like to publicly thank her for her efforts. Thanks Jeanie!

We spent a good part of last week in Bend, OR (Central Oregon, East of the Cascade Mtns). It is a fun little town with a ton to do and see. We took the longer more scenic route down there which winds over the Siskiyou Mountains and through a small little town called Sisters. It is named such after the three mountains you see pictured below. The names of these three mountains are South Sister, Middle Sister, and of course, North Sister. How did they ever come up with those names? Anyway, we caught them at sunset and it turned out to be a nice picture.

This is a picture of Sidnee pouting in the car. She didn't want to get out and enjoy the beautiful scenery. She sure is cute though.
We used the first full day on our trip to drive down to Crater Lake. It is a huge lake in the middle of a dormant volcano. The lake is a beautiful blue and the pictures don't really do it justice.
Some guy helped us out with a picture. We had ventured out onto a ledge where we could have fallen to our deaths if we weren't careful. Don't worry Mom, we were careful (it was Sidnee's idea).
My tree friend and I kickin it.
After staring at the lake for a while we drove to the east side of the crater and proceeded to hike up Mt Scott. It is a hike that rises 1,500 feet in elevation over a 2.5 mile trail. The elevation at the top is 8,900 feet above sea level. There is a sign at the bottom of the trail that tells you to get back in your car if you are out of shape or have a heart condition. After we got to the top I realized I fell into the first category and should have gotten back in the car. Oh well, I lived to tell about it and catch Sidnee in the act of eating this granola bar...

This was taken from the bottom of the trail and you can faintly see a little bump on the ridge line in the middle of the picture. That was our final destination.

The next day we took a drive on the Cascade Lakes Scenic Byway. It is a loop that goes around Mt. Bachelor winding through many beautiful lakes in the middle of the Deschutes National Forrest. This was our first stop on the drive and there is Sidnee wandering out into the middle of a marsh on the west side of Mt. Bachelor. In case you haven't noticed or have just begun following our blog, one of my favorite hobbies is catching Sidnee in funny poses or taking her picture when she is not looking. Sometimes she catches me in the act and I have only a few seconds to react or it's curtains for me and my little camera.

In this picture she has noticed my actions and is now charging.

She's getting closerrrrrr! Drop the camera dummy, it's not worth it!

Don't worry, she didn't hurt me. That sequence of events did actually happen though. The picture below is how she normally is when not provoked.

Next stop on the "Sidnee Thoughtful Pose" tour was Devil's Lake.

On our drive back into Bend we stopped at Lava Butte. It was a large lava flow that erupted thousands of years ago. You can see Mt. Bachelor and Broken top in the background. Check out the video below. It's kind of funny.

Thanks for reading (and watching)!