Hiking

We love hiking around here. Last year, Chris found a Kelty Kids backpack carrier on Ebay for like $20 (they are rather expensive new or even used). We were elated! We now have two backpack carriers and can go hiking with both girls more comfortably since Elise has really grown out of the Bjorn for all intents and purposes. Up in the foothills where we live, hiking adventures abound. At this point in the year, however, there are less options because snow is still present in some hiking areas and other areas have not yet been cleared from trees falling during snowstorms during the winter months. Last year, we made the mistake of going on a hike to a place that hadn't been cleared. We made it maybe a mile into the hike, when there were just too many trees fallen all over the trail to go on with two kids in carriers. We will save those hikes for a little later in the summer. Instead, we headed up to the Reservoir and took a lovely 3.5 scenic hike around it. We've done this twice in the past week, and hope to do it again this weekend.

There are really no cons to this particular hike. It's not strenuous. It's just a nice easy-going hike around the lake; well, it would be if you weren't carrying a 20 or 30 pound kid on your back. The girls change it into a true hike. If one were to do it without kids in tow, it would be a fairly leisurely 3 and a half mile walk with gorgeous scenery. With the girls, it is a great little workout. The second pro is that the hike is around a lake. We can stop anytime and let the girls take a dip. It's still not quite warm enough for the full swim experience, but both times, the girls have had a blast putting their feet in and splashing around.

Butterflies were flitting about during our hike, landing on us, and generally making Kayla squeal in delight. We saw several geese and ducks on the lake, which drew Kayla's attention as well. She also loved looking for boats on the water and "shushing" Elise (who likes to hum and sing to herself in baby babble) so that she wouldn't scare the fish for the people in the boat. When no boats were in sight, Kayla sang some songs herself, keeping us highly entertained. She literally sang for close to half of our last hike; one song after another. From Happy and You Know It to Jesus Loves Me, we were serenaded with the lovely voices of little children.

The Lake is only about 20 minutes from our house, so we plan to make this 3.5 mile hike a regular occurrence. We will search out some other hiking adventures as well, but this one is sure to be our "go-to" hike during the summer of 2012. Come up and visit sometime, and you can come along. :)