Our 2014 Summer Adventure

We did it! So proud of myself and the kids! Proud of  Kris for losing weight and being active. I knew he could do these hikes no problem. This is the kind of thing I did all the time growing up. My dad would take us for day trips to the forest for hiking and we did lots of camping in the high woods. I was the straggling one whining a lot of the way, but I did it. Then we would get to the top and have a beautiful view. My dad would say, "Wasn't it worth it? Just enjoy it." I guess it was worth the pain to get up the hill. Now I am taking my kids to do the very thing I complained about. Kinda funny. It shows that what you did as a child impacts what you do as an adult.

The day was Monday August 25th. Kris had 3 days off. Mount Rainer was having it's fee free day so off we went to take advantage of that. It was a beautiful day for it, too. We hadn't been to the mountain since Lily was a tiny baby in the baby carrier. Our first stop was Longmire to eat lunch then walk around the meadow loop. I was going to bring the carrier for Kate, but forgot it at home. Kate did great and walked the whole way around, not even asking once to be picked up. It was a nice peaceful walk and all the kids had fun. Lily was the most enthusiastic saying how pretty it was and how much fun it was to be the the forest.

After that walk we went up to do the Carter Falls hike. I was nervous this would be harder. Could we do it with three little kids? Kris and I did this hike before kids, and I remember it being a little difficult for me then. Again, Lily did fantastic! Emma whined some, but did pretty awesome for her 4 year old self. Kate was our awesome little trooper, truckin' along the best she could but was getting pretty tired. She did get a ride up for just a little bit and all the way down got a ride on dad's shoulders. She even fell asleep!

Monday night Kris planned our camping trip. He announced to me that we were walking in a mile and a half to our camp site. "What!?" was my response. "I don't think so. How are we going to get everything we needed there to camp?" I was willing to be adventurous but not THAT adventurous. I convinced him that backpacking in with three small children and little me wasn't going to happen. My back and feet were killing me from just our day trip. Oh, and did I mention my best friend was going to have a baby any day and I didn't want to be that far away? Back to the drawing board he went. He found a better spot not far from town he said. Just seven miles north of us. Perfect I thought. Little did I know that it was the actually 24 miles away and most down a dirt road! Ya it was 7 miles to the turn off. I didn't remember hearing that part. Away and more away we went.

Now this is what I remember doing as a child. Me all the while checking for serve on my cell phone praying we would stop soon. Nope, we kept going. The girls asking when we were getting there every 2 seconds after an half hour in the car. I was thinking the same thing. Finally after an hour, or maybe a little more, we arrived at our camp ground. There were more people than we thought there would be for a Tuesday, but not crowded by any means, and the camp sites were pretty secluded. We found a nice cozy spot not far from the bathroom and the creek. Kris set about setting up the tent while I took the girls to explore the creek.  What a pretty little creek it was, but ice cold! Did that stop the girls from getting in? No way. It was a really nice place. We explored the creek and the camp ground, roasted hot dogs over the fire, and of course had smores! Lily calls roasting marshmallows marshing. I scared the crud out of the girls when they thought they had gone to the bath room all by themselves (there was a little back way through the woods) it was getting dark and I open the door and went "Rawr!" They jumped out of their skins. It was really funny, and they laughed too.  Kris also convinced me to go on another hike the next day, just up from our campsite. The one he wanted to backpack into. We only walked a quarter of a mile of the trail to this cute little water fall on a creek. Again the kids did great and I refrained from whining as we climbed the hill. I even had Kate on my back all the way back, and again she fell asleep. After the hike we wanted to find a lake I saw a sign for. It was only 8 miles away. On gravel! Took us way longer to find it then I thought it would. The roads are not clearly marked out there so we took the wrong one, went back, took the other road, and still thought we didn't find it, but we noticed a couple cars parked on the side of a road where there was a trial. Kris deiced he would check it out. All three girls had fallen asleep. He came back to say he found the lake, then noticed the sign way up in a tree that read "Spider Lake." The girls woke up and we took a hike to the lake; not very long, but very steep, and we really should have put on our sneakers. It was a little lake, not good for swimming; not much of a shore, and a huge drop off not far from shore. So we didn't stay very long and by the time we got back up to the car, I had had enough adventures and was so ready to go home.  All in all it was a good time had by all. Our girls really like camping and I think Lily is going to become daddy's hiking buddy.