Catching Up #1--Our Hike to Waterfall Canyon

Matthew, Josh and Daniel are still enjoying Kids in the Park. Every Thursday is field trip day and this last Thursday they went on a hike called Waterfall Canyon. Seeing as Josh and sometimes Daniel seem to have no fear of most anything it made me really nervous to send them with the huge group of kids with only a few adults going to supervise. Since there have been crazy snow and rain storms all spring the river run off is ridiculous and quite dangerous. I knew the trail went by the river so that made me even more nervous to send them without my supervision. They really wanted to go on the hike so I did something I have not done for 7 years--I hired a babysitter. Yes, I caved and actually paid a young woman to watch Sarah and Noah while I hiked with the oldest three. I am always nervous to hire babysitters just because my kids have some life threatening issues (severe food allergies, epilepsy, etc.) and I hate to leave them just in case something were to happen. In this case I had the life threatening kids with me--the other two should be ok.

We all gathered at the park in preparation to leave. At this time they handed everyone a hiking snack--peanut laden trail mix. Daniel thankfully didn't take one, but everyone else did. At this point I decided to follow the buses in my car so I could have access to an Epi-Pen, Benadryl and an inhaler in case Daniel came into contact with the peanuts. Luckily I didn't have to use them. We got started up the trail. I didn't end up hiking with all three boys because I was too slow for Josh, too fast for Matthew, but I was just right to keep pace with Daniel. Daniel made a delightful traveling companion--even if he tripped and scraped his knee and screamed hysterically for a few minutes afterward. Everyone turned to see what had happened, but were relieved to find it was only and overly dramatic Daniel screaming about his small scrape. We got started on the hike late so we didn't make it all the way to the top before we had to turn around. We did get very close to the top though. We did make it close enough so I could snap this picture of the falls: On the way down I was too slow for Josh and Daniel, but just right for Matthew's pace. Matthew went slower because the waterfall sounds seemed to be too loud for his liking so he kept his ears plugged with his fingers. I wasn't complaining about the slower pace, though.On the way down it was a beautiful view. In real life you could see the Ogden temple from this point on the trail, but it doesn't show up in the picture, though. Just take my word for it!! That was one very strenuous 2.4 mile hike that was completely uphill the whole way up. When we got home I looked up the hike on the Internet to find it was listed as strenuous so I am not making up the strenuous part!! There was a very good reason why my legs were screaming by the time we got up to our turn around point on the trail. However, I am happy to say I made it all the way up the trail and back without needing to stop--even if I was completely sore and stiff the next two days. It was completely worth it to hang out with my oldest boys!!