Blisters, Snakes and Dirt, Oh My!

Mike and I tested our vow to live life inconveniently with a hike w/ the girls this weekend. On Saturday we hooked up with the King family and took Kenzie and Hannah up to the waterfall in O-town. This is about a 3 mile round trip hike and wouldn't have been that inconvenient except for our decision to not carry Kenzie. Hahaha. This is Mark carrying Kenzie down the last part of the trail.

The hike started optimistically when a 12-13?? year old girl saw us traipsing through the parking lot with our caravan--two babies in packs on dad's backs and two blondie girls and their moms--- and asked us where we were going. "Up to the waterfall," we said.
She gave that perfect teenager look of skepticism and said, "You do realize it's like an hour hike, right?"
We smiled politely and headed up the trail. An hour? Who was she kidding? It took us approximately 2.5 hours to reach the top.
Rusti and Kenzie entertained each other for awhile, throwing rocks, looking at Rusti's lip gloss (a must-have for any serious hiker), and with Kenzie saying, "When we get there I'm going to put my whole body in cuz these are my swimming clothes." While I tried to warn her that it might be a little bit cold, she insisted.

We meandered, and it was fun. I tried not to have too many expectations of Kenz, and I think that might have been why it was a successful trip. Licorice and fruit snacks kept the girls going for awhile and then we tried distraction. Kristin and Rusti forged ahead and discovered a snake, much to Kristin's dismay.
The snake was a good distraction and kept Kenzie going for a little bit, but she had started telling me her shoes were too tired to walk anymore about 20 minutes into the hike. Slowly but surely we prodded her along and she actually did really well. Not as well as Rusti, who walked the whole way without any carrying and (I kid you not) no whining, but still it was encouraging.

I carried Kenzie a little ways up the top (Mike was carrying Hannah the whole time, and sometimes Kenzie as well) and her face was classic when she saw the waterfall! She was amazed. Then she refused to put her feet in because it was too cold and kind of whined a lot the rest of the trip. So much for her whole body theory.

Hannah fell asleep and loved putting her feet in, after the initial shock of the ice cold water wore off.
















When we got home I took off Kenzie's shoes and she had a huge blister on the back of her left foot. Poor girl. No wonder she whined. I'll have to find some different shoes for her when we hike again.

Sometimes I wonder if we are giving our children a healthy love of the outdoors, or just cultivating a deep-seeded hatred of it-- I can imagine my teenage Kenzie giving me that perfect look of teenage skepticism/'you are so stupid' and saying, "Mom- you and Dad totally made me hike all the time when I was so, like, little. I am, like, so totally, NOT hiking anymore." Except she'll text it to me, because teenagers don't really talk anymore. They just text.

We finished off the hike with a Farr's ice cream cone. It was good times! Thanks Mark and Kristin for being good sports with us!

When I told Kenzie she did a good job and asked her, "Did you have fun? Will you go hiking with me and Dad again?" She smiled (probably satiated by the bubble gum ice cream cone) and said, "First I will take a nap, and then we can go hiking again."