Is the Mountain Out?

This is the strangest phrase I have ever heard."Is the Mountain Out today?". I am visiting my Mom in Olympia Washington. To the Southeast of her is Mount Rainier, the elusive magical mountain. You can see it from Seattle, Tacoma and Olympia. You can see it from most of Western Washington. It is huge. The thing about this mountain is that most of the time it is there but you cannot see it. It has its own weather system and has clouds around it. There is a lot of fog, low clouds, rain, snow, etc.
This is my 4th trip to Washington and today is the first time I have been able to see Mount Rainier!!! I have seen it from the plane when we fly in and out of the Seattle- Tacoma airport but I have never seen it live.
We have had a running joke about it being a conspiracy to get people to Washington by telling us about this huge mountain, putting it on their license plates, naming everything after it...Rainier Road, Mountain View school, etc. I joked there simply was no mountain because I have never seen it. Well today we were driving home from church and there it was huge, huge, huge. The funny part was my ipod was on shuffle in the car and playing over the radio. As we starting screaming that we could see it, Handel's Messiah came on the ipod.... you know the famous song of Hallelujia, hallelujia, .....It was so funny.
If you go the the Cascade Mountains website it even says, Is the mountain out today. It is apparently the thing they talk about up here.
We are having a great visit. It is very cold for us but we love it. Except Lauren, she hates everything below 75 degrees. The high yesterday was 35 but today will be 40. The first day we were here the lake was iced over and the kids had a great time playing with the layer of ice.
From the airport on Wed we went Lazer tagging (watch out for Emily, she is brutal) and then looking at a wonderful holiday lights display.
Thursday we went to Ocean Shores, a beach on the West Coast of the Pacific Ocean. It is a Tsunami zone and has sirens and evacuation roads through it. It was a strange beach. You could drive your car on the beach and the ocean was higher than the sand so you were looking up at the waves. It was very eerie. Emily threw mud balls at our car until it was covered. It was really funny. We ate at a restaurant called the Rusty Tractor but we kept calling it the Rusty Trailer by accident. They served real Rattlesnake Eggs and Yak! I had a Patty Melt.
Friday we went to the movies and saw Night at the Museum-great movie and the kids loved it as well. We also went shopping and to the Olympia seaboard. We went to a Children's museum. Emily wound up playing the Vet's office and Matthew attracted a crowd of 25 men with his architectural feat in the Water room.
Yesterday, we went out for more shopping and were rather worn out. We watched Christmas with the Kranks and went to bed a bit earlier.
Today we were up early to go to church. We went to Living Water Church in Olympia. The kids had a great time. We heard from a Mexican missionary who has followed God's calling on his life. Very inspirational. Today is the only day I have to work. I am working 4pm until Midnight so that's all for now.