HiKiNg...

My pics are all out of order...literally backwards. BUT they are all beautiful and I'm not going to fix them. :) On the 5th (Monday), the last day my sister, Raeanne was here we were able to get up super early (too early) and go hiking up Adam's Canyon. Anyone who lives or has lived in Utah knows that it's in Kaysville and has a giant waterfall at the very top. It's not too far (about 3.5 miles round trip), and in an attempt to be more outgoing, live an active lifestyle, and be more outdoor-sy type people, Chad and I have decided that every weekend we are going to do a different hike in our area. We have lived in Utah most of our lives and almost out entire married life together (almost 8 years) and we haven't seen hardly any of it. So before we move any where else (whether that's soon or not only the Big Guy Upstairs knows) we are going to make the most of it.

As you can see the hike was BEAUTIFUL. The kids did extremely well since this was only the 2nd time we have EVER hiked with them. Daija was quite the trooper. Kyla loved when we would stop so she could explore rather than walk. And Chase loved being carried....most of the time. Unless he didn't want to be carried which then Chad carried him...most of the way up. And I carried him most of the way down. Except for that one time, when he wanted to walk...and almost tripped and fell down the mountain...but didn't so we wont' talk about it!

....please continue after looking at some pics...
Having another adult to hold a child's hand was WAY better than if Chad and I had tried to go alone! Raeanne basically kept tabs on Daija and helped her when it got hard. Thanks Rae!!!

We found this AwEsOmE log that had "seats" cut out of it. It was our favorite spot we stopped at. The area was big enough the kids could run around and I didn't have to worry that they might fall down a cliff or slip into the stream. We stopped here for treats and drinks and some really cute pics. :)

The kids loved stopping here and throwing rocks into the running water. The pic is kinda small but you can see all of us. I'm glad Raeanne was able to get a pic of our entire family instead of always having one of us missing. :)

Hiking....hiking...hiking.... Kyla told me the her "legs were hurting" when we were almost to the top. Not bad for a basically first hike.

Chad was able to get some amazing pics. I love nature and the fact that none of it bit us while we were out in it made it even better. In fact we only saw mosquitoes (ok well I know I got bit once...nothing serious though) and a little lizard on the way down. Besides the many dogs with their hikers there wasn't anything else we saw. The water was awesome and cool. The kids LOVED it and since we had such a good time they will actually look forward to the next hike which, let me tell you as a mother, is priceless.
We didn't actually get to the very tip top because the hike got too scary for Chad to carry Chase and not have two hands to hold on to something so they didn't fall to certain death. We could almost see the falls around a corner, but not well enough to get a picture. Which is slightly disappointing, the goal was to get to the falls! But we were close and it wasn't worth the risk of my family. :) We will try again later. Maybe when we can get a couple more adults to help hand off kids and such! On the way down I held Chase most the time because Kyla wanted Daddy. He fell asleep with about a 1/4 of the way down still to go. Can I just say...Carrying dead weight down a steep hill is HARD! But we made it!

Today...being the next day...I am SORE. I did NOT want to get out of bed this morning. Which is OK with me. :) My fat butt needs it. And I hope that doing these hikes helps build an everlasting love of being active in my children. I've gotten lazy in my old age. No blame on my parents. We were quite active growing up. But Chad's parents weren't. Not their fault they don't enjoy it. But we do and we are very excited about the little family we envision ourselves becoming. Stay tuned to see more posts about our mini adventures!!! :)