Strong's Canyon

It's been WAY too long since we've done any explorations of the out-of-doors. So long, in fact, that I forgot how much I like doing it. We've got a pretty major hike coming up this week, so a couple weekends ago Nate decided we should do a little warm-up adventure. We loaded up the kids and went about 20 minutes away to hike Strong's Canyon.
It was so fun. And beautiful. I told Nate that if we can keep up the hiking, I might not want to move to Georgia so bad, because it helps me remember that there are beautiful, green, wooded, mosquito-infested parts of Utah too.

The hike follows a mountain stream, which was swelled to overflowing with spring runoff. It actually got a little scary a couple of times because the trail crosses the stream in several places and the current was quite strong. It's one thing for just Nate and I to do it, but with a kid strapped to your back or in your arms it throws off your balance just a little. Add to that the slippery rocks and extremely nippy water, and I bet you can come up with quite an entertaining mental picture of us crossing. I'm glad to report we all survived, and our shoes squished for the duration of the hike.

Addison was a trooper. He walked almost the whole way himself and enjoyed finding rocks, beetles, a little green inchworm dangling in the middle of the path, and moss (which I wasn't aware they had in Utah).

Bryn had a bit of a tough time and spent most of the hike whining in my ear and pulling my hair from her perch in the backpack. But the doctor told us a couple days later that her throat was covered in sores. And she's getting a tooth. So I think she acted admirably. She even dipped her little toes in the water.

I carried her in my arms on the way down and once she found the water she did great. Nate thought she looked like a little baby monkey clinging to its mom.