12 hours without children

Yesterday we took a day and went for a long day hike. It's amazing how far you can go when you don't have children in tow. We left early and left Elsa and Gibson with some friends. Then, we picked up our friend Ailina -who is heading to college in a week and wanted to go for a hike- and headed up the mountain. We had a great day hiking. We went a total of 15.3 miles. Yes, our muscles sure are feeling it today! It was so refreshing to be in the mountains again and to be out hiking. It really is something that defines summer for me. It made me want to go backpacking and just be in the mountains all the time. I will have to say the hike was really hot becuase there wasn't a lot of shade on the trail, and there were hardly any trees until we got down to the last lakes, and even then there weren't very many-not like the mountains we grew up by. However, I was enjoying so much being by the lake that I started to think crazy thoughts like, "maybe we could bring the kids up here", and "maybe we could go backpacking with the kids". On our way out I realized that my body could barely handle it, and I don't think I could carry a squirming child that far!!We would like to go up and camp and then take a much shorter day hike sometime.

I really enjoyed the hike, and it made me feel a little better about missing my family hike in Oregon later this week and my extended family reunion over the weekend. Because I was so aware of missing those events, I think I was more inclined to do things I would do with my family. For example, swim in the icy mountain lake.

and hike 15 miles in one day

and smile like I wasn't sore and like it was so easy to hike those hills!

I was glad Ailina came too, because it reminded me of being with my sisters! I never would have gone swimming without her, and it was actually very refreshing!

We saw some moose on our way out.

Thankfully, the children were great while we were gone and had a good time at our friends. We're so glad to have some good friends that we feel are like family so we can leave our children once in awhile. This was definitely the longest I have left Gibson since he was born, and I was a little concerned about that, but he took a bottle fine, and giggled and slept most of the day! Hooray!

One funny thing did happen though...I had packed extra clothes for Elsa and Gibson just in case. Well, when we went to pick them up, Elsa was wearing these shorts. Now, you may never guess it, but those are Gibson's shorts! Yes, they are size 3-6 months, and they actually fit her pretty well. We got a kick out of that. I don't think your 4 month old and your 2 1/2 yr. old are supposed to be able to share clothes!