Before we took off from Washington we packed our last few weeks with a million activities, just because we didn't believe that moving from one state to another was enough to keep us busy.

 One thing that we have always wanted to do, but never seemed to be able to find the time to do it, was to go up to Mt. Hood during the summer.  They have a Adventure camp that includes those mountain slides that run up and down the slopes.  They had other activities as well, but the slides are by far the most exciting ones.  We spent a good portion of the day going down them.

You've got to love the giant sign telling you how dangerous it is, right before they push you off. 

The boys loved going down by themselves but the stick that pulled up the break was hard to manage and so they often went slower than they wanted to.  Alaina preferred to go with either Rob or me because we could make it go really fast.  

Look at all that effort and concentration that Austin is putting into it.  The challenge didn't seem to damper their enthusiasm for the ride, however.

 We spent the morning there and ended up going back in the afternoon to catch a few more runs before it closed.  Robert and I took turns going up with the kids while the other one stayed by the end with the baby.  While we were there, you couldn't help but notice this group of rowdy 40 - 50 year old men trying  to recapture their glory days.  They were racing each other down without using the brakes and acting like a bunch of teenage boys.  A few times we saw them flip out on a turn because they tried to take the corner too fast.  Every time they got down to the bottom their conversations were full of "Dude!  Did you check me out on that turn!" or "Dude!  I totally flipped out...It was AWESOME!"   You get the type, right? 

I was the lucky one to bring the kids up for the very last run and when we came to the end we saw a big crowd of people surrounding one of those silly guys.  He was just laying there at the end of the track.  It turns out (Rob was standing right next to the end of the run when it happened) that this guy came flying down the track and either he didn't put on the brakes at all or he tried to brake way too late.  Anyways, the guy came full tilt, blew through the barrier at the end and hit full speed onto the cement wall.  As soon as he hit that, he flew through the air, making a complete flip and landing with one part of his back on the cement and the other half on the ground.  Rob was pretty sure that he broke his back.  He was in so much shock that he didn't feel any pain.  Yet.  Thank goodness he didn't break his neck.

And that, my friends, is why you pay attention to the rules and you don't act like an idiot when you are old enough to know better.

Back to our day.  We had a fun time enjoying the rest of the park.  They had golfing.

And a big trampoline.

Pony rides.

A climbing wall.

A cutie pie.

And what park wouldn't be complete without hamster balls?  This isn't a bad idea.  This way they could  still play with each other and yet, they never will get close enough to touch.  I've got to get me some of those.

We ended up with a couple of hits at the batting cage and then called it a day.