Over the River and Through the Woods

In high school, my church youth group would take a group of us camping and called it Wilderness. I was talked into going a couple times by my now husband. It's a pretty rustic area - you don't have to pay to stay in the campground, but there are only pit toilets and a river.

My husband goes there a lot when he's hunting, but it's probably been about 6 years or so since I've been there. We took the boys there this weekend.

Here's Malachi enjoying himself in the icy-cold glacier water. I was not so keen to go wading in it (I remember washing my hair in that frigid water back in the day... and it's not so pleasant), but I did get far enough in to snap a couple pretty pictures of the landscape.  The boys are hanging out in the tent and then there is the lovely picture of Malachi and the coyote. He and my husband went "bear hunting" and came back with a coyote. Apparently Malachi spotted it and he was so excited (can you tell from the look on his face in this picture??). I guess I have a natural born hunter on my hands.

We also did some hiking. The original hike we were looking for was VERY hard. WAY harder than I expected. The site I found it on said "good for kids" which was a total lie. See that narrow little path in the second picture on the bottom? That was where we stopped and turned around. I didn't take that picture at an angle - that's how steep it was. Holding a 25lb person on your back doesn't help you when you need all your balance. Malachi was terrified he was going to fall down the mountain.

We did find another remote trail that we walked down for awhile and that was fun. We found some good views and some insects that Malachi enjoyed chasing. I love the picture of Shaun and Malachi looking out at the mountains. =) Zachary can only handle so much hiking though... then he decides to scream the rest of the way - which is not so fun for the rest of us.

All in all a fun trip! This will probably be our last camping trip of the summer, but I'm still hoping to get in some more hiking in late-Summer and Fall. I just love the time outdoors with our family. Good memory-makers!

More Outdoor Fun

This past Saturday, my husband was out of town and I decided the boys and I needed to do something fun. Another gal at work had asked me to switch weekends with her, so I ended up with a long stretch of days off - hooray!!

We had a busy few days: 
Thursday - the 4th of July. Spent with with my family. We went to my parents to light some little fireworks and have dinner and then headed out to the local fireworks show. Both boys LOVED it - even Zach! I wasn't sure how he'd do since it was SO long after bedtime, but he smiled and laughed through the whole show!

Friday - painting. My mom came over and we spent the day painting Zach's room a pretty sky blue.  It coordinates with a blue in the art work I bought WAY back at our last house. I'm finally getting around to putting a nursery together for him.... it's way past due. I am really happy with the result and I'll post some pictures when I get it all back together and art on the walls.

Saturday - the park! Somewhere along the way one of my summer goals was to visit a bunch of places we've never been (including me who has lived here my whole life!). So far this year we've visited the Mclane Creek Nature Trail and Nisqually Wildlife Reserve. I found an interesting looking place a little north of us in Tacoma for us to go this week. It was called the Tacoma Nature Center and it was sure fun!

The best part about this particular place was something called the Discovery Pond. It was basically a large playground. It was nice because it was enclosed but very spread out, so lots of kids could be there, but not on top of one another.

They also have nature trails with some nice loops - long and short. The 5 of us took one of the short loops and then later my Dad, Malachi and I took a longer trail, while my Mom stayed back with Zach while he napped. We had a picnic lunch at the Discovery Pond and it was a very fun day!

We've been blessed with some very nice weather around here lately. It's been warm and not much rain! Perfect for getting out and discovering new places!