"Mount Saint"

So, over at Tumbleweeds, Aron has really got everyone worked up about volcanoes! Which really isn't hard to do, but still. He brought in noted Chemist "Sarah's Mom Daniel" to do a cool Brady-like volcano experiment. Freaked everyone out.


So, spurred by ERV, we headed to Mount Saint Helens last weekend! It wasn't easy--Elsie threw up on everyone in the car, and then Ida had a meltdown where she alternately wailed that the mountain was too tall or not very tall. Once we got to this vantage point and ate some salami, things started to look up. The girls looked through the telescope and saw steam emitting from the crater! The ranger helped them (though Theo referred to her as a "STranger," which caused everyone to wonder if they should shout and run away whenever the ranger approached).

There's really not much shade up there. Why? Because the sonic winds and dust cloud and sheer force of the explosion destroyed all the trees!

These ladies did not forget their sun hats.
Nor this little foxlet. (Note, by the way, that dress of Maggie's I warned you about, last post. One clue: it has a bra built right into it!)

A little later we went down to this amazing little lake where it was cooler and Theo fell down and scraped her knees and really screamed. Sound carries across water.

This man caught several trout. He is only allowed to keep one each day, and it must be sixteen inches. He caught one that big earlier, or so he said, but let it go since he was sure he'd catch another. He didn't, but he did catch about fifteen fish, all about twelve inches. The girls had a good time questioning him and getting in his way as he tried to get his pontoon personal watercraft thing into his truck.
Miki threw half the beach into the lake.

These girls are so familiar with the volcano that they just call it "Mount Saint." Ida told us yesterday that she would like us to move closer to Mount Saint.