One LONG motha hike

Yesterday was our Stake Conference and it was broadcast via sateltie. Yeah, those are too hard for our kids to sit through. Okay, they are hard for me to sit through! So we decided to have church in the mountains instead, with Richard and Tiana. I have a whole list of hikes that I want to complete before it gets cold so I am just going down the list each weekend. This one was one of the "moderate" hikes. I thought for sure we could do it though. And we did. Only 3/4 of it. It was a 6 mile hike and I went into it thinking, "okay, if we need to turn around or if it gets too hard, that will be okay." But it wasn't super hard. There were some steep parts and some big rocks we had to maneuver over but all in all it was not a hard hike. It was just freaking long. Especially with 4 little kids in tow. The twins did fantastic and didn't whine or complain or ask to be carried or ask how much longer even one time. Tay was kind of a pill on parts of it and Easton cried the entire way down. But we didn't make it all the way up to the lake because after all was said and done, after all the picture stops and the stopping to eat lunch, we ended up running short on time and were afraid we wouldn't make it to my parent's house on time to celebrate Richard's Birthday. Richard and Tiana ended up leaving us to head back about 45 minutes before we decided to throw in the towel. The twins and I were super bummed. We had set out to climb to a lake and that's what we wanted to do! But we wouldn't have been able to enjoy the lake because we were cutting it so close on time. So this hike needs a do over. But I am thinking that Kendrick and I will attempt it alone or maybe just take the twins next time...

Even though we didn't complete it, it was super fun and 5 3/4 miles is not too shabby for four kids under 9!

I love that my legs look thin in this. If nothing else good had happened that day, at least I would have had this picture to make me smile.

All these pictures are out of order and I just don't care. Blogger is on my $#!% list these days.

How cute is this caterpillar?! And to think we almost stepped on him...

Can you see the pre teen attitude making it's debut?

what a view!

Easton and Tiana

T took this with her phone. All the berries were so pretty and added such a nice pop of color. I cannot wait until the leaves change!

My expert hikers. These two kill it. I would totally go hiking, just the 3 of us.

We found a snowboard looking rock!

LOVE his face

Stopping for a lunch break

Yeah, see-this one goes above the last one. Stupid stupid Blogger.

This was about 30 minutes in. We could have and maybe should have stopped here. Or we could have taken the road less traveled and gone to the next hiking trail rather than skipping to the 3rd and longest hiking trail...

funky coloring but you get the point

All I could think about on the hike up was all the news stories I've been hearing lately about people that fall off trails and down the sides of mountains.

Kendrick and I

The Birthday boy (26) and myself (31)

After the hike we met at my parent's house and had dinner. Then Richard had Birthday cake and opened gift cards and was ever so thrilled to have his picture taken...

Tay can't have cake so my mom made her this bad boy. I'm not going to lie, I had to practice a great deal of self control to not snatch this and take a few huge bites.