Living In The Moment

On our first official day of Dad having time off (Saturday) we decided to make the most of his week off and do something fun. Everyone was enthusiastic about going to Multanomah Falls. 

Fortunately our friends lent us their baby carrier for Z, so that we could do a little hiking. The boys were really excited about going to see the waterfall. It was packed, of course, since it was a beautiful sunny Saturday... but we didn't mind. We walked up to the lower bridge and then decided to venture a little further up. We even got up to switchback 2 of 11 before Tyler said, 'I don't know if I can go the whole way." In his defense he was the one carrying Zayden on his back and it was all uphill.... in fact, it was all up hill until switchback 9. We stopped at 2 and the boys ate apples, carrots, string cheese, and some cookies. This seemed to brighten everyone's mood and I somehow managed to convince everyone to press on. I mean, how many times would we be coming back and have time to hike to the whole way up to the top of the falls? 

The boys were a little whiny and kept saying they were tired and that their legs hurt. Quincy was getting a blister on his ankle because he refused to wear the socks I had picked out for him. BUT after several stops (pretty much every time we hit the next switchback) and a few pee stops a step or two off the trail.... we DID it! We made it to the top!!

 The boys liked exploring a little when we finally made it to the top and even put their hands in the icy water. After everyone had a chance to enjoy the 'being at the top moment'. It was time to head back down. The boys were NOT excited about this part. In total it's one mile and some change to the top, so heading down sounding rather daunting. However.... what started as all uphill, was now all downhill. It took us about 45 minutes to walk up to the top and approximately 10 minutes to get down. Our boys were little troopers and B only had one little cry session on the way down about how his legs were tired and he couldn't keep walking. Tyler was nice enough to carry him for a while. 

When we made it to back to the car, everyone was happy about the prospect of eating lunch. We we decided on Five Guys for lunch and .50 cent Burger King soft-serve ice cream cones after for our treat. Our fun didn't stop there, we even went out later to Blue Lake Park and played in the splash pad, the boys explored a little on the 'beach' and we finally came home around 7:00PM. We had pizza for dinner and the boys didn't protest too much about bedtime. I think it's safe to say, everyone slept REALLY good last night. 

It's fun to be spontaneous and do things together as a little family. 

We can't wait for the rest of next week to do MORE fun things.