We went to the mountains with Dan and Nicole for my/Anna’s birthday weekend. And we didn’t take it easy on anyone. First we went to compressions, my favorite place up there, which is a mile hike straight up and straight down. Joe and Izzy crushed it. On the way up, Izzy said “this isn’t even exercise”. I was the only one to slide down the falls, and I gotta admit, in my old age, everything makes me more nervous.

The next place we went was Elk River Falls. Izzy was rock hopping like an expert. We also swam, and she did great. The water was really cold, but it felt really refreshing. That place is so pretty. It was Nicole’s favorite stop. I could stay at places like that all day.

The last stop was Upper and Lower Falls. The kids also did that hike like a champ. Both kids did the slides with me. On the upper slide, there was a rope to help you climb up the rock. Izzy handled that like a champ and went up and down a bunch. Joe struggled a bit more, and we only went once, but he had fun too. His big thing is throwing rocks into the water, sometimes at you, which we are working on. On the lower falls, Joe didn’t really want to go, but he kind of slipped and went backwards. He didn’t love that. Izzy liked it a bit. Joe’s favorite part there was putting leaves in the falls and watching them get carried to the bottom. Izzy didn’t like it when he did that to her leaf…or when we left her big rock she wanted for her collection (Science Girl).

We need to to go to the mountains more. It’s our beach up here.

Categories: Diary