A day in the forest...

Kinda, sorta.. We drove up to Portland to spend our last day with Omi and Opa for this year. They are flying out this morning to go see my brother-in-law and his family. The girls are already asking when they will be here again. They LOVE having Omi and Opa visit!
We started out at Hoyt Arboretum before we met up with Omi and Opa at the World Forestry Center. We went into the building first and did some looking around, checked out some books, bought a little wooden top for each girl and then headed out for a hike.

It was a bit chilly and wet so on with the boots, gloves, and rain coats. Then it was time to discover some tree's!

 This was the girls' favorite tree. The "stripped" one. It's a Birch-Bark Cherry and they loved all the colors on the trunk. Coming in close second for "favorites was a Madrone tree. I'll have to find the picture of that one. Arianna found the Douglas Firs amazing and tried to see all the way to the top. I almost expected her to fall over backward!

One of these days we will have to get the girls to the Redwoods. Those are amazing!
From here we went to eat some lunch (in the car) and blow some bubbles for a little while until it was time for meeting up with Omi and Opa at the World Forestry Center...

They had a ball at the Forestry Center and all the "hands on" stuff they could play with!

 They discovered what they might find in a dead log

 What they might find living underground (with a stop to visit the big bear).

And tried their smoke jumping skills. Omi and Opa "helped" (well, okay, did most of the work) to fill out the "treasure hunt" papers for the prize at the end of the trip. The girls had a ball and can't wait until Omi and Opa can come again...The girls are already coming up with more "field trips" for them!