Frozen Multnomah Falls

Ted heard early this morning on the radio that Multomah Falls had frozen over for the first time in several years, so we decided to drive out there this afternoon with D and L to see for ourselves. I had never seen the falls in this state. It was a lot of fun skidding around on the icy paths and seeing the wonder of what happens when constant waterfall spray freezes on blades of grass and chains. It was beautiful, and I had yet another moment of feeling so lucky to live in Oregon.

There's still no news from Ethiopia. Apparently, the phone lines were jammed and our caseworker couldn't get through to find out if anything is moving along or not. I did get an email today from a mom who is there now in Addis and who got to meet Abenezer. This is what she said:

We got to visit Abenezer today! When we arrived to the foster house, he was outside sunbathing on a foam mattress on the lawn. There were naked baby tushies as far as the eye could see!

Pretty funny image there, though reading this gave me those unpleasant pangs of deep longing to be the one there getting to meet him. I'm so thankful for any bit of news and look forward, as always, to more pictures. Yesterday was an especially sad, emotional day for me (I never know when these are going to hit me), so this trip out to the gorge today was a nice break.

I offer documentation of the trip today. Drive east on the 84 towards the gorge, and you'll get to see Mt. Hood:

We arrived at Multnomah Falls and the love of my life threatened us all with a sharp icicle:

Here are the falls in all their glory:

Here's the view from the bridge. Note the ice-covered pathway:

What frozen waterfall mist does to grass and branches:

Not being afraid of heights, I leaned over the railing of the bridge to get this picture of the almost-frozen bottom of the falls:

Weirdness at the bottom of the falls:
So while Abenezer is sunning his tush in Ethiopia, his mom and dad (hopefully) are freezing their tushies in Oregon. Sigh. Sigh. Sigh.

I'll leave you with a video of L (Ted's nephew's awesome girlfriend) tushie-sledding down the path, with the help of a very concerned tourist. He seemed pretty aghast that the men were just standing around letting her do this--he reached out to help her at the end with a disapproving look on his face. All those worried "oohs" are his:


And finally my turn. It was a lot of fun, especially the one bump on the path: