How much fun can one weekend hold?

Our friends, Carrington and Christine, invited us to spend the weekend with us at their getaway house outside of Hood River. I figured it would be a mountain cabin that we would all cozy up inside of. Boy, was I ever wrong! This place is straight out of the pages of Sunset Magazine. It was fantastic!
This house was designed with fun and friends in mind. It is situated on 16 acres of remote wilderness, and has the East fork of the Hood River flowing through the property directly behind the house.

Simply beautiful, and sustainably built by Carrington, who clearly has a knack for this type of thing. The beams, dining room table, and other parts of the house all have a story to tell. My favorite feature is that they designed the living space to have an oval track where the kids (and big people!) can ride plasma cars. Totally kid friendly and family friendly. So much room to roam, it was unbelievable!

This picture of the North side of Mt. Hood was taken from their huge back deck. The house is situated on the edge of a cliff that goes down to the river below, so the deck is massive in order to have room to play.

Out front was an amazing forest yard with a tire swing and other fun stuff to do. My boys went very high on this thing. Of course, I wanted to try it too!

Wheeeee!

Hiking down the trial to the water.

Chris and Nate throwing rocks into the raging river. It was gorgeous, but very swift and very cold.

Bailey, Dan, Chris and Nate trying to move this boulder. No luck.

Another very cool thing about this property is that the Mt. Hood Scenic Railroad goes right through it! We spent lots of time walking the tracks, and looking for loose ties.

The highlight of the trip for Dan was putting coins on the track. The train went by on Saturday afternoon, so we knew that it would be returning within a few hours. Pennies and nickels were flattened as souvenirs. Dan said that he has wanted to do that for 40 years! Check that off the list....

The Barrs-Olson family.

Chris and Nate's favorite part of the weekend was doing all the 'work'. They helped chop, haul, and stack wood, move rocks, build a sandbox, construct a fire pit. It's fun to be a workin' man.

This is their dog, Bailey. She is a way cool dog.

So mellow and loving. She slept with the boys the second night. They loved that!

Sydney. She is hands-down the cutest and smartest 3 and 3/4 year old I've ever known. I just adore this little girl!

I shared my shiny lip-gloss with her, and that connected us like you wouldn't believe.

She had such a fun time with Chris and Nate~it was fun having two 'big' boys around.

Carrington giving rides as they move on to the next project. Chris, Nate, Sydney, and Ole.

On Sunday morning we blew out eggs, and then painted them to make a bowl of colorful eggs.

The end of a very fun day. We sat around the fire pit, roasted marshmallows, then called it a night. What a great getaway!