The Cascades welcome a new hiker

Today was Benjamin's first hiking outing! He has snowshoed before, when he was just a tiny little guy, but this was the first real hike. Loren decided that he wanted to celebrate Father's Day in the great outdoors, and since his birthday is tomorrow, we rescheduled Father's Day for today. Benito got him a case of mac and cheese from Costco for Dad's day. It was a big hit, as I suspected it might be. We went to the BOB with Judith and Madelyn for breakfast, and hit the trail a little later than usual. It was a short hike though, so that was ok. We went to Talupus Lake, of I-90, and it was great. Pretty lake at the end, not too crowded, and lovely snow everywhere. Benjamin decided it would be a good idea to sleep for most of the return trip, which I thought was pretty clever of him. We also noticed that of the 7 or so groups of hikers we encountered, I think 5 of them commented on how cute the hound is, and only 1 even mentioned the boy. I guess its a different audience out there. After the hiking adventure, Grandma Pat came over to babysit, and I took Loren to Ray's for his birthday dinner, where we ate the traditional salmon, and watched the sun set. It was excellent. We had to stop on the way home and buy my Dad's Father's Day present, which can only be purchased at the liquor store. Well, we got to the Wallingford location at 8:50, and it turns out it closes at 8. So we are standing outside the door, looking bewildered, and trying to decide what to do, when a frat boy in a white car drives by, and yells out the window "The U Village store is open until 9", which I thought was pretty funny. So we raced over and made it on time. Yay team!