A Hiking We Will Go!

On Monday, we decided it would be fun to take a hike to the "Wind Caves".

We each made our own sandwich wraps, slathered on sunscreen and put on our best hiking shoes then headed out. Becky (7+ months pregnant) and 3 younger ones stayed back, not knowing if a hike would be that enjoyable for them.
Nicky-Taylee-Jay-Treyson-Jason-Cheyenne-Madelyn-Marissa-Savannah-Abree-Rylee-Emilie-Me-Brayden
Our hiking group (minus Spencer).

Spencer finally decided that he WOULD hike with us, when given the choice of staying in the car and not having anything to eat or coming. He said he would rather hike, than "starve to death". :)

Here we go!

About 1/3 of the way up the mountain, we came upon some people stopped on the trail. When I listened, I knew why they had stopped... I heard loud rattling! There was a rattle snake close by and he was warning us to STAY ON THE TRAIL! It made some of our group (including me) a little nervous about continuing, but we did.

Taylee begged me to let her go see it. I begged her to leave it alone and just keep going. She was so disappointed.

Our group was divided into 3 parts most of the way; the teenagers and older kids, me with some younger kids and Jason, Jay, Nicky and the youngest kids. The first group made it to the wind cave a head of all of us. They explored without restraint.

I heard a person (not from our hiking group) say, "Did you see that boy fall? He made me nervous." I was almost certain it was Treyson they were talking about. I found Treyson and the big kid group, scaling the rocky mountain side. There was a narrow ledge that if you hugged the mountain and shuffled your feet, you could end up in another big cave. (So I was told. I was not brave enough to find out for myself.) As I was getting down to the first cave, I saw Treyson disappear around the corner on the narrow ledge. I told him to tell our group to come back and that I didn't want anyone else to go back over there. I couldn't handle the worry of someone falling. The cave had a lot of loose dirt and gravel and it was easy to slip and slide around.

And yes, he was "that boy that fell".

Looking down from the top of the wind cave.

Even when hiking she looks good. :)

Beautiful views.

Rylee-Me-Abree-Jay-Taylee-Treyson

Marissa-Jason-Cheyenne-Savannah-Madelyn-Spencer

Brayden-Jeron-Emilie-Nicky

On the way down the mountain, Treyson started running and wiped out. I yelled to him, "Treyson, are you ok?" He didn't answer right away.

"Treyson are you ok?"

When I got to him, he had scraped up his knee and elbow, but he was ok. He stuck by me after that, but that wasn't the end of him falling. By the end of the day, he had many bumps, scrapes and bruises and his legs and hands were filthy!

Later, he was talking to me about his fall. He said, "When I fell, I started going down the mountain, so I just grabbed the strongest plants I could see. When I didn't answer, did you think you lost me?"

After we all made it down the mountain, we went to a park to have lunch and then headed home.

Nicky had an awesome dinner planned... dutch oven chicken, dutch oven potatoes, cheesy veggies and homemade rootbeer. The kids were fascinated by the dry ice and just had to play in it.

Catchin' clouds.

After dinner, I pulled out some old photos of Jason, Jay and Ira in highschool. We sat around and reminisced.. listening to stories of "the good ol' days".