A few weekends ago we decided to spend the weekend hiking Shades State Park.
Eric and I both love hiking and we are really hoping that the boys develop the same love for hiking.
We started hiking with Emerson when he was a year old. We used an Ergo baby carrier to hike 50 miles through Glacier National Park and Yellowstone National Park . We took turns carring him on our backs for hikes and we both agreed that it was great.
Along came Rhys and we had to figure out how we would carry two kids while hiking. Eric started researching child carrier back packs because we needed to have a way to carry a water bladder, food, sippy cups, diapers and wipes, as well as the kids. He found a Kelty brand pack that he really likes and it has enough room for all of our supplies.
Emerson had a hard time transitioning to the new pack. It was a difficult fight for the first few hiking trips. He now loves riding in it when he is not hiking along side of us.
Emerson has been asking to walk on his own for a while and a couple of times we have let him but he hasn't lasted very long. Our goal on this trip was to have him hike the whole of our morning hikes. He did it and was great at it!
We hiked the nature preserve within the park. It has some really great trails with large creek beds, rock walls, interesting rock formations, walkable ridges and pretty well defined paths. Eric told me he had read somewhere that the hikes were not really suitable for small children. I DO NOT recommend it but we did it anyways.
We made it all the way through. Emerson did great! This is something that we have worked on and still need to work on. I am pretty sure if you were in front of us or following us, you would grow tired of hearing us say things like, "hurry up," "speed up," and "come on Emerson." There are moments when Eric and I want to leave him in the woods because he want to go touch the water, walk in the poison ivy or pick up every stick to find the perfect walking stick.
I get it, though. We try to be patient and let him experience and enjoy the moment.
When we went back out for a late afternoon/evening walk Emerson didn't want to go at all. I think he thought he was going to have to walk and I am pretty sure he was beat. He was wearing his pajamas, we convinced him to put on shorts because he didn't want to get his pants dirty. He was happy to be a passenger on this hike as we climbed a couple ladders and walked up a rocky creek bed.
We made it back to camp and ready to relax for the night but it was not a relaxing evening. I had a headache, not terribly bad but enough to make me want to just lay around. Everyone was hot, sticky and tired of smelling of bug spray. I decided to take Emerson to the showers so both of us could get cleaned up and refreshed. Little did I know, the water in the bathroom would be neither cold or hot. It stayed room temperature the entire time. It was so not refreshing.
When we got back to camp, no one was happy. We were on the verge of a major meltdown and I was going to be the leader of it. Finally, I called a cool down meeting in the car. This is where everyone sits in their seats and we turn the car on with the AC and we talk about our favorite thing of the day, worst thing and how we can make it better tomorrow.
Emerson kept asking me if I had turned on the SLC? Not really sure where he got those letters but I knew he was talking about the AC.
That was what we all needed. My headache started to go away, the boys brought the whining, fighting and shenanigans down to a minimum and Eric was just happy we all stopped our whining!
The boys crashed and shortly after so did we. We all slept well.
We finished out the weekend with Emerson's birthday celebration and a great hike with my parents. Emerson was so excited to hike with Grandpa Hotrod.
We can't wait for our next camping trip to Shades State Park!
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