the hike

For President's Day we decided to venture out. We have not done anything like this in a very long time, it was long overdue. We headed up to Usery Park, about 20 minutes away (35 after all the wrong turns) and a whopping $6 per vehicle. That is our kind of pricing!

We packed a lunch and ate first and then headed out for the Wind Cave trail, a supposed 1.5 mile hike. I'm pretty sure it was closer to 2 miles. Doesn't Meg look so cute in her new skirt? She's been on a huge yellow kick lately and this outfit helped keep her happy for at least part of the outing.

Adam and the kiddos on the "easy" part of the trail. We figured we'd just carry Carlie, forgetting that she is very into walking right now, especially outside. Oh, and she loves rocks. LOVES them.

About 30 minutes in we were having some serious struggles with Carlie. She only wanted to walk, and when we'd let her she had a hard time not stopping to pick up rocks. I finally let her keep one in her hand which kept her moving for about, oh, I don't know, a minute until she found a bigger rock she wanted. Plus the terrain was getting steeper and steeper and it was harder to keep her balanced.

Then Meg had to go potty. So we found a rock which she was surprisingly cooperative about. We finished without any clothing replacements needed, and started to continue when Meg said she had to go potty again, this time #2. I didn't really plan for that and I was sure that experience would not go over as well as the first. That, and Carlie bursting into screaming and flailing fits every few minutes, Adam decided to take the little ones back while the rest of us continued.

Lucy was such a trooper. The last few weeks she has been so whiney. But hiking, she was so sweet and excited and talkative! I wish I could've recorded her all the way up, she literally did not stop talking. "This hike is hard for little kids, but I can do it, because I'm big. We should get a dog. No, we should get three dogs, one for each of us. Maybe only two, for me and Megan. Do you think there are snakes up here? That's a big mountain. Are we gonna get to the top? I'm a little thristy. Do you think we can have a snack at the top? Look at all those people at the top. I bet Daddy can see us from here. This mountain is huge. I can see the whole world from up here. . . " on and on she went. Not a single complaint.

Here we are at the Wind Caves. And no, I'm not expecting despite what this picture may depict.

Lucy with her snack at the top. The top is always worth the climb. It was a good little hike. We had a few injuries on the way down. Lucy's toes were hurting and in my hurry to get down I slipped and scraped my leg up pretty good. Unfortunately I was holding Lucy's hand and dragged her down with me.

I'm so glad we went, I had forgotten how much I love hiking. I spent a summer in New Mexico hiking every single day as part of my job and ever since then it has been something I can't get enough of. But logistically it does not seem to work out too often. Luckily I have a hiking buddy like Lucy to push me along. I think we'll be doing a lot more hiking in the future, especially as the kids get bigger.