A Great Hiking Adventure

A couple Saturdays ago we decided it had been way too long since we'd done any explorations of the out-of-doors. We were hoping to see some pretty fall colors, so we went to revisit the yurt. To make a long story short, we started at the wrong place and ended up hiking a long way before we realized it. Then on the way back, we missed our starting point and stumbled into the good ol' yurt. Freezing and starving by this point, we scarfed down our tacos in the dark. and booked it back to the car. That said, we had such a good time! It's so nice to just get outside sometimes with just the family in a place where it's quiet and you have no immediate deadlines or responsibilities breathing down your neck. We had so much fun watching the kids enjoy the outdoors too.

This has been the most wildly successful hike we've had with Bryn so far. She had a blast riding on my back and was happy the entire time and did not beat on the back of my head or pull my hair at all, which is a great improvement over every other hike we've ever done with her.

She kept leaning forward and giving me little loves on my head.

And she thought all the pretty leaves were flowers and smelled them nonstop.

When she got out of the backpack I think her legs were asleep, because she kept falling down every time she tried to take a step.

Addison loved it too. Normally he takes a long time to wake up from naps, but all Nate said was "Hey buddy, we're going hiking!" and he sat up with a huge grin and said, "Really?!" and was ready to go. He ran for the majority of the way, which should qualify him for an Olympic medal. He had a great time finding "swords" (long blades of dead grass) on the side of the trail, for all of us to carry. He decided about the time that he purposely stepped into a frigid muddy mess of a puddle that he wanted to be carried on Daddy's shoulders.

The fall colors did not disappoint. The scenery was beautiful!

This looks exactly like a bear, doesn't it? I thought so. If you want to get technical, it's actually a cow, though. And there were tons of them by the road on the way out of Snow Basin.

When we got home (which seemed like a long trip because Bryn screamed the whole way) we thawed out with hot chocolate and a football game. What a great day!