Thursday, March 24, 2011

Give-Away *WINNER* & Waterfalls

What a fun day we had yesterday! Our daughter Amy brought our granddaughters Jenna and Paige out for the afternoon.  Here is Jenna when they first arrived, I asked her to bring her sock monkey so I could get photos of both the girls and their monkeys, here is Jenna holding them both. :-)
Here are both the girls with their monkeys.. I have to tell you, the photo session was HILARIOUS! Trying to get a good photo of two wiggly girls is a challenge to say the least.  I have 20 photos and most of them have blurs or something goofy going on.  This one I thought was adorable.
Having fun...
The best one without blurs.. :-)
And below are the girls drawing the names out of the hat for the Give-Away... ::drum roll::
AND THE WINNER IS.........
A lovely blogger who lives in England, Anne from Andamento Blog. I just love her blog as she takes us along with her on these fun bike rides through the English countryside and shows us great old ruins and cows and lakes and things.  I count her as one of my blogging friends.  Anne, please visit my Etsy shop and pick out your favorite pair of earrings and I will send them to you!  :-)
After a cozy and fun afternoon by the fire and taking photos and drawing names.. we bundled up for a drive to show the girls the gorge and some waterfalls.  Here they are at Portland Women's Forum State Park with Vista House and the Columbia River Gorge behind them.  
Then we drove around Vista House and on to Latourell Falls.  It's a beautiful waterfall and quite big.. the photo below shows the wonderful neon green lichen that grow there all year.. and see the orange lichen too?  
Here is the mossy and fern-covered rock wall by this waterfall.
Next is the most un-discovered and special waterfall - it's a favorite of mine - called Shepperd's Dell Waterfall.  The family that owned the land where this waterfall is in the early 1900s would go there for family "church" as it was such a sacred feeling place.  You can't get the full feeling and magnitude of this waterfall from the photos, but you walk down a curving pathway from the edge of the bridge you see in the photo below and you come to a viewing platform at the VERY EDGE of this rushing waterfall - it's loud and amazing!  In the photo below you can see the rock wall on the left, that's the walkway.
Youngs Creek cascades down a twisting alcove in a series of falls totaling about 180 feet in height, with the lower half of the visible portion of the falls (essentially everything upstream from the bridge) totaling 82 feet. The falls begin with a horsetail which feeds into a plunge, stuffed back in an inaccessible part of the recess. Below here, the creek turns 90 degrees and cascades 32 feet over a few small drops before funneling down a 50 foot veil with a concave hourglass shape. As the creek passes beneath the graceful arching bridge spanning the chasm, it drops over two final falls of about 20 feet each.
Amy and the girls in front of the falls. 
Shepperd's Dell Bridge and the waterfall as you stand at the viewing platform.  You can see the railroad tracks at the base and the Columbia River is over the lowlands you can see past that.

It was super fun to have almost 40 people leave a comment for the give-away - as I've said before I just love reading your comments, it makes me feel as if I'm making friends around the globe - which I just love.  I hope you are all enjoying Spring!  ((hugs)) Teresa

17 comments:

  1. Congrats to the winner and thank you for sharing the beautiful views of the waterfall. :-) Have a great day Teresa!

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  2. Aren't these two monkeys the cutest, especially in your grandbabies hands. I can't figure out how I have missed your for so long. I have been going for English bike-rides since I can remember with our friends. Congrats.

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  3. Your grandbabies and grandmonkeys are just adorable.

    You are so fortunate to have such natural beauty surrounding you on a daily basis. The waterfalls and gorge just gorgeous. We have to hope on an airplane and travel far to find such natural wonders.

    Congrats to the giveaway winner. Hope you are having a great day. Tammy

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  4. Ok, they are just too cute! The granddaughters and the monkeys! I'm so glad that you are getting to share some special time with them! Have a wonderful week-end! ((hugs))

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  5. Hello Teresa beautiful granddaughters, monkeys and scenery. My DIL and my two granddaughters have spent today with us- the weather was so lovely we were able to have lunch outside in the garden.
    Congratulations to the winner of the earrings.
    Love Anne

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  6. Looks like heaven on Earth and your granddaughters look like heavenly angels! xoRobin❤

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  7. Hi Teresa, I'm so lucky to have won a pair of your lovely earrings! I'm just in from another concert and thought I'd have a quick look at some blogs before bedtime and am I glad I did - I'm sitting here with a big smile on my face :)
    I'll email you with my choice (the moss agate ones) and address in Scotland, UK (not England, UK - sorry, I'm so pedantic!)
    Thank you so much, I am delighted!
    Anne.

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  8. Oh darn, I didn't win! But congratulations to Anne in SCOTLAND! You are very lucky.

    The sock monkeys are adorable and so are your granddaughters. I'll be they were happy to see how prettily the monkey was dressed. :-)

    How nice to spend time with your "girls". We're driving to Portland next Friday so I'll miss you at Multnomah yet again. One of these days we'll meet there at the same time. Your pictures are gorgeous.

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  9. Hi Teresa .. I just love the photos of your grandchildren with their sock monkeys - what fun. You have a beautiful daughter too. Gosh those waterfall photos are stunning - such an awesome place. Is that far from your place?
    Have a great weekend. Cheers,

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  10. Your granddaughters are beautiful! So lovely to see how much those sock monkeys are loved already :)) Have an amazing day!!

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  11. Beautiful pictures of the waterfalls and your babies! ♥

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  12. What sweethearts all (3) of your girls are Teresa. Your sockmonkeys really do rock the little ones' world! They are lovely photos, spring is arriving at your falls too, great to see. Congrats to the giveaway winner!
    Have a great weekend and thanks for all your kind comments on my blog, it's always great to "see" you there!
    Jane x

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  13. Very lucky winner, the girls look so beautiful in front of the beautiful falls.
    Glad you had such a lovely day with wiggling girls and sock monkeys.
    Meredith

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  14. Your grand-daughters are beautiful. Lovely pictures of the waterfalls, you are so lucky have such great falls nearby. Have a great weekend. Joanna x

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  15. Those sock monkeys are fun and your granddaughters are very cute!

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  16. Beautiful photos of Amy and the girls! Those sock monkeys are so cute and they are a really great size too. Lovely photos of the falls.

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