With a sodden Sunday shooting down a hike up Mt. Si with Carl and Amy heading out to scrap all day it looked like a quiet Saturday at home... until Dan called. Jenn was also going scrapping and since it wasn't raining just yet it seemed a perfect opportunity to go out for a hike.
Dan, Bella, and Ethan arrived at about 10:30. After saying goodbye to Amy and to borrow a family favorite, we were off like a herd of turtles. Except I think turtles move faster. I suppose were probably doing well given we had five kids under five. As we emerged from the road at the trailhead all the city-folk who had driven miles to get there probably saw us as truly crazy.
Clara and Bella led the way with Lilly trying to keep up. I suppose it was a glimpse of the future in which Lilly wants to play with Clara and her friends, but will be seen as the little sister and not old enough. Today wasn't about exclusion, but simple physical development. Lilly still walks like a toddler while Clara hikes like a kid. (Bella is somewhere in between.)
Dan, Tokul, and I (and the monkeys we carried) brought up the rear. The girls were generally pretty good about stopping when we called out to them, though they never quite got the whole idea of maintaining visual contact with us.
There were loads of other hikers on the trail even though the skies threatened (including retired bigwigs from the Times) so we spent lots of time waiting for people to pass us. As usual, we got lots of "Ah... how cute" types of comments as well as a few strange ones from a woman who commented that Ethan was "fat." She might have been better suited to a more remote trail.
At the big tree we thought about heading down to the river, but the beach was already really crowded so we headed back to another, though more difficult to get to beach. After a short scramble we were down with rocks to be thrown and special hiking bites to be eaten.
To get back home we had to climb back up to the benches overlooking the falls. Lilly was winding down a bit, but remained in good spirits. Especially with the promise of yet more hiking bites at the top and macaroni and cheese for lunch back home.
Throughout the entire trip there were only a couple of falls, but nobody got upset. Truly amazing, in my opinion, even if the distances weren't terribly great.
Total mileage, walked by all three of the girls, was about 1.75 miles and 250 feet of gain.
