Hiking

I've been wanting to take the kids hiking for a while now, and this week we finally made time for it. I took them to a nearby mountain where MJ and I had hiked a few years ago: a four-mile trail, very steep and rocky. MJ had his doubts whether the kids could handle it, but they did great!

It took us about three hours. They absolutely loved all the boulders to climb, and I was pleasantly surprised that their energy level and enthusiasm stayed high for pretty much the entire time. 

The views up at the top were awesome. The kids were so amazed! We should definitely do more hiking in the future -- it's something that I really enjoy, and I was so thankful that the kids loved it too.

We left early, right after breakfast -- to beat the heat as well as the crowds. And it ended up being perfect! There was a light breeze, which kept us comfortable under the shade of the forest. And although we didn't see many people while we were hiking (and had the entire summit to ourselves), we passed a surprising number of people coming in as we were leaving. So it seems that we timed it perfectly!

Fortunately the only injury happened on the way down -- CC stumbled on a tree root and scraped up her knee pretty badly. I'm glad we were already halfway back down the mountain by then, and that CC had been able to enjoy the hike and the views from the peak up until that point.