Celestial Falls (Dream Big)
Kayakers Prohibited
Have you ever had a dream of something you would like to do? When I first got into kayaking I saw two pictures of waterfalls that I knew that I would one day run in a kayak (The Seven Teacups on Dry Meadow Creek and Celestial Falls on the White River). I did get the opportunity to run the teacups several years after I had been kayaking, and I was hoping to run Celestial Falls on this trip. We made the drive to Celestial Falls, and as we approached the falls there were a couple of signs that show kayaking the waterfall is now illegal. The park host also came over when he saw our kayaks to inform us the waterfall is not legal to run. Apparently someone got hurt a long time ago, so they decided to close it to all kayakers. Many still sneak in and run the falls, but do so illegally. So, it was a bit of a disappointment to be there and not be allowed to kayak. Disappointment is a part of the trip and our journey. It is great for our kids to see when we are disappointed and how we handle it. We have had a couple opportunities to persevere through our disappointment. Today, we drove within a couple miles of Mt Saint Helens, and a rock slide had washed away the road so we were not able to see the mountain (even though we went 75miles out of our way to see it). Then we tried to go to Mt Rainer National Park and found out the roads were closed due to snow, and the clouds were so thick we could not even see it from a distance. These were all great opportunities to work through as a family, especially since they made for more drive time and less hiking/playing time than planned.
Nose Job
Another great opportunity came when I got to practice on Tirzah as my latest surgery candidate. She was acting strange keeping her finger in her nose all day long. She would ask us to wipe her nose and then scream when we tried. Jodi looked up her nose a couple times, but never saw anything amiss. We finally pulled into camp around 5:30p (very late for us). As Jodi was changing Tirzah’s diaper, she noticed that one nostril was black. Jodi thought it was dirt but asked me to take a look. I did my looking with a pair of tweezers, and we were all amazed to pull out a small pebble from deep within Tirzah’s nostril. Tirzah was so happy to no longer have a rock up her nose that she was all smiles as she kept pointing to her nose. She makes our third child to stick something up her nose which we had to remove with tweezers (Kendall:Pea, Chloe:Tic Tac, Tirzah:Rock). Adventure truly does come in all forms!
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Praise God for the succesful removal of a pebble! #3…..you’ve had plenty of experience!
The falls are beautiful…..Happy traveling.
Love you. Mom
Hey…spotted you and your lovely family in Trader Joe’s, Spokane today!! I connected your van to you and went and looked up this website. Wow…what an adventure you are on!! My husband would do this in a heart beat. We have taken crazy trips on a smaller scale but last years ended with all my kids in the ER with carbon monoxide poisoning…so I am a tad hesitant to set out again! haha But, ya’ll are making amazing memories that your children will hold with them forever!! Wish I would have known when I saw ya’ll. I would have loved to visit ya’ll for a few minutes. Do you plan to stay in Spokane for awhile?
Thanks Julie, we would have loved to visit for a bit. We will be leaving Spokane on Saturday. Tomorrow we plan to go to the riverfront and play at the park. Let us know if you have any great suggestions for things to do while we are in town or if you want to visit.
This reminds me of the time I had to remove a little wad of paper from Kent’s ear. I used a straw and sucked it out. I was afraid to stick anything into his ear.
Jeez, I think it was Kent.
I’m glad to see you guys are enjoying yourselves, even with the disappointments.