Mother's Day Hike 2017 (and Week 19 of #52HikeChallenge)

7 years ago, on my first Mother's Day when Kayla was just 10.5 months old, Chris planned an experience that has since become tradition.  A Mother's Day hike to find a waterfall.  I (sadly) didn't document all the hikes well, but thought I would throw a few pictures that I found from previous years out there because they make my mama heart happy.  

 

The two above are from 2011 and 2012 (my 2nd and 3rd Mother's Days).  It seems like so long ago that we had only the two little monkeys (although I'm pregnant with Ava in that pic on the right)

And this one is from Yellowstone in 2015

 This year, we looked up hikes in the area with waterfalls and were bummed to see that most of the "nearby" hikes would require us to pay a fee (national and state parks) which isn't the end of the world, but we currently have a lot going on with just buying the house, so trying to save where we can.  So we kind of put it on the backburner and decided to perhaps figure a hike out with a waterfall for next weekend....

We also wanted to get our Week 19 hike in for our #52HikeChallenge2017, and the weather was supposed to get cold (and snowy!!) again this week, so we knew we'd have to sneak a weekday evening hike in.  

The girls are part of a soccer co-op on Wednesday nights, so we thought we'd try to hike along a trail system that is near where they have their practices, so we could hike just before soccer this week.  We found a trail and took a lovely little hike along a creek.

 

It was both evening and overcast, so the lighting of the pictures (especially under this lovely, weepy tree above) is rather poor, but it was such a lovely, green hike.  

And then we rounded a corner and saw this sweet waterfall!

My heart soared!  It was like a Mother's Day present from God.  A waterfall that he found for us so we wouldn't have to make a crazy month even crazier trying to visit one further away from us.

The kids were not as thrilled.  It had started raining (sprinkling really, but the drops were big enough that Elise was freaking out--she hates rain and wind.) and Kayla wanted to go right to the edge of the rocks to see the waterfall more closely which we vetoed because it was a bit of a drop and it was raining, so slippery.  The progression of "Mother's Day waterfall hike" pictures, thus, totally cracks me up.

 

 

Despite that, we were able to have a nice hike.  As you can see from the progression, we got Kayla smiling again.  Elise stopped crying shortly after all the pictures, because the drizzling raindrops waned.  And we finished a lovely hike before heading to have some more fun at soccer.

Sophie wanted to take the "little path"

Happy happy (belated) Mother's Day to all you wonderful moms out there, especially my mom, my mom-in-law, my godmother, and my "second" mom.  So many women, young and old, have been an amazing example of the beauty of motherhood to me and I'm so thankful for all of you.