Noelle here:

My whole post could be one picture. Okay. Three pictures.

But I’ll add some words to amuse myself. I got to Cascade Locks fairly early in the day. Found a not great parking spot. Felt a little overwhelmed by all the people. Worked on a video. Then our oldest daughter called to see if she and the boys (our son in law had to work) could join me to hike out to Steve this evening. I was like, oh heck yeah!

So then I couldn’t concentrate on anything but just kept watching for them in the parking lot even though I knew they hadn’t left home yet! I tried to make myself take a nap in order to make the time pass more quickly. It didn’t work. 🤣

They finally arrived. It’s been so long since we’ve seen our kids. I felt excited beyond words. Just getting to hug them was amazing. And knowing that the three of them were the beginning of family this week… I felt so much love!

We hiked out to Steve. Logan is 15 and an athlete, so he was way ahead of us! He got to Poppa first. Then Cooper ran up! Then Danielle stopped mid sentence and just said, “there he is!” There were tears all around…again…

And then we got to the Bridge of the Gods. Danielle and the boys drove ahead so I could walk with Steve. What a joy!

He doesn’t love heights, so that was something. But it was just thrilling to walk across that bridge!

Steve was so pleased with himself. I loved his joy!

I also loved that he held on tight! 🤣🤣❤️

Danielle snapped a picture of us on the Washington side! Then we made our way to my sister’s for the night. A shower and a real bed! It was a very good day.

For the next few days we got to see kids and grandchildren and our niece/her husband and our nephew and my Dad! Such a treat!

We thought we’d see friends but we stayed so busy that we simply ran out of time.

We ate great food and relaxed. Steve got a check up and the doc’s thumbs up to keep hiking. 🥰