Sun & Blue Water Fun

Yesterday was such a wonderful summer day!  We had our 4 year old Caleb overnight on Sunday night and decided to take him to Kahneeta for the day on Monday.  5 year old Hayden spent the night with Kristi's parents - but we asked if we could take Hayden with us, so she dropped him off at 10:30 am yesterday.  First off we took the boys out to lunch and then pointed the car East and headed on a 2 hour drive to Kahneeta.  This wonderful pool is on the Warm Springs Indian Reservation in Central Oregon.  It's amazing the difference of the landscape from the Western side of Mt. Hood to the Eastern side.  Here is the pool as you come out of the changing rooms.  Dayle and the boys are in the pool already, he's got a pink float and a hat on and 2 little guys with him.

I took a few photos with my Lumix camera before I got in the pool, too.  Here is the 2 slides that the bigger kids can use, and the little slide on the left is what our 2 guys used.  There is grandpa with them again.

One of my favorite parts of the pool are the 3 bears in the middle that hold Salmon which are spouting water into the pool.  The pool is a double Olympic sized hot springs mineral pool!  It's warm as it's constantly being freshened by the hot springs there.

I took my Fuji waterproof camera and got a few shots before the battery died.  I couldn't find the charger for it! :-)  There is Dayle to the left of the bears and Caleb swimming in the yellow and Hayden has two arm floaties on.

Dayle and the boys and the Bears.

Grandpa took a few shots of me and the boys in the middle section of the pool.  The shallow end is a little hard for adults as you have to keep your legs bent to be in that side.

We arrived at the pool at 3 pm so we stayed in for 3 hours and got out at 6 pm.  I thought it would be best that we not be in the water at the high point of the sun - we all got a bit brown but no one got a bad sunburn, just some pink.  We got this float the other day and it worked out perfect!  We used it as a home base - and I floated on it for a while, it was so comfy!  

We got more photos on our way home, on the way there we were zooming to get into the pool.  This is the Warm Springs River that runs alongside the pool area.  Notice the dry landscape?  This place is a desert canyon.

The red rocks of the canyon.

Heading away from the village pool, there is this amazing rock cliff filled with caves.

Here is a mesa and the red rock as we wove our way up out of the canyon.

Here is an old church in the little tiny town of Simnasho, an old Indian village at the top of the canyon ascent.

As we drove along the desert towards home, still on the reservation, we saw several herds of wild horses and many young foals.  

I have a lifelong love of pinto and paint ponies and horses - look at this adorable, long legged cutie!

Then we arrived at Hwy 26 that goes over Mt. Hood and headed West.  Soon enough we began to see amazing views of the mountain as we zoomed along.  I pulled over and we got this shot.  The terrain began to change to green and tall forests.

I have to tell you that these photos do not do justice to the amazing and huge vision of this mountain in person.  This is the last shot we got and we were very close!

We decided to have dinner at the Tollgate Inn in Sandy.  The boys were tired and so were we.  Isn't this a cute place?  

It's morning now and I'm blogging and Dayle just made pancakes from scratch for all of us for breakfast.  The boys are outside swinging now.  Another perfect, sunny, warm, beautiful day!  Thanks for visiting!!  I wish for you a fun summer day.  ((hugs)), Teresa :-)