A little more than a hike!

Yesterday we had a fun hike planned, but once again rain was in the forecast so we decided to do a simple and easy hike that Aaron had done once before, and wait to do the more extensive hike another time. We set off toward donut falls and right before we got there we came to a stream that had grown much wider than it had been before. It took a few trips, but Aaron and I were able to get all the kids across the stream, hopping from rock to rock and slippery log to slippery log. It wasn't too bad, we've crossed several streams before and we always look forward to a little challenge. It looked like the trail ended at the foot of the falls, but we were hoping for a little longer hike. There seemed to be a faint trail that went up along the side of a drop off parallel to the falls so we decided to go up. Sam and Kaeli took off and were excited to climb to the top so we all scrambled up the hill. At first it wasn't too bad, but before long we were rock climbing up a face that made me very nervous. One little misstep could send you sliding down the cliff toward the stream below. I stayed as close as possible to Sam and Kaeli, but they didn't seem to notice the danger. Aaron had Sara in the baby pack and was slowly helping Rylie up the hill. As we were making our way up Kaeli came to a wasp nest sitting among the rocks. I told her to go around and we all made the same detour. We finally made our way to the top. I was so grateful that we made it safely. There was a trail that looked like it hadn't been kept up, but we decided to follow it any way. It was overgrown and the further we went the less it looked like a trail. Knowing that we needed plenty of time to get down the hill we decided to turn around. When we got back to the top of the cliff that we had climbed up we decided it wouldn't be very safe to go back down the same way we came up. So we followed a trail that looked more like a game trail than like a hiking trail. We bush-wacked our way down knowing the general direction we needed to go in. Of course it was slippery and steep, but it was safer! When we got to the bottom of the hill we followed a ravine toward the sound of the stream. When we got there it didn't look like a place where we could cross. So we kept walking down stream. The bushes and branches were so thick that we could barely see the ground, and we tried not to flick each other in the face with the branches. We got to a place were it was just too thick to continue, so Aaron went back and scouted out an area to cross. He came back for us and one at a time he helped the kids across the stream. We eventually made it back to the trail. Before we got to the car we stopped for lunch and a game of tag at a clearing. For some reason the kids and Aaron are always trying to catch ME! (It still was one of the highlights of the day). So our little hike turned out to be a little more of an adventure than we thought it would've been, but that wasn't too surprising! Our kids are great little hikers, and we had a lot of fun!