Cascades

We bought a barely used hiking backpack from someone at Jason's work recently and decided to give it a try yesterday. We borrowed another one from some friends so both kids could be secured and Lily was SO excited. She was most excited because we were hiking to see a waterfall, much like the one she sees so frequently in Up. We tried the backpacks out the night before to make sure Lily would actually get in it and she did not stop asking if we could go to the waterfall "now!" We learned not to mention something exciting like this until we are actually on our way or in the parking lot.

She could hardly contain her excitement in the morning!

Ready to go!

The snacks came out pretty early...as you can see we are still in the parking lot.

Simon was incredibly excited about the water. I thought he would fall asleep on the way up, but every time he saw water, which was pretty much all day, he would point and scream in excitement. It was so fun. I thought he would start saying water by the end of the day because it came out of my mouth so much during the hike.

Just a couple views that got Simon to scream and point.


Lily discovered moss and a centipede(?). It was some sort of caterpillar type thing with a hard shell and a lot of legs. We also saw chipmunks, a baby snake, butterflies and a giant dead frog.


The falls seem to come out of nowhere. You can't really hear them, but you walk around a rock and all of a sudden there it is. Just a glimpse of God's beauty. You get to see it all the way up, but something about the waterfall is simply amazing. You could just sit and watch it and enjoy His creation.

When Lily first saw the waterfall she pointed and said, "Big waterfall!" Then she couldn't take her eyes off of it.


It was pretty windy by the waterfall and Simon enjoyed a cooling breeze.


Time to refuel!



Exploring dirt and roots.

When Simon gets excited he points at things, but he also has started squatting down and it just makes me laugh. It's so funny to see, but it's just so adorable. He smiles, screams, squats and points at dogs, butterflies and water as well apparently.


We packed the kids back up and then took a picture of just the two of us. We don't have many of these anymore and it's something that needs to be remedied!


Simon fell asleep for about 20 minutes on the way down. It wasn't a restful sleep as he grunted and moaned, probably because his head kept hitting the metal bar it was resting on every time I stepped, but it was enough to sustain him through lunch.

He woke up when I stopped moving for Jason to take a picture and then fell back to sleep. When he woke up for good he was so excited he could still see water that he started pointing and screaming again. It was such a great way to spend the late morning and early afternoon. We will probably purchase another backpack so we can do some more hiking in the future!