The Young and the Restless

Another Fun Hiking Trip


It's very rare to have a day where the kids are out of school and Jason has the day off. Jason has been working so much over-time lately as they were finishing up a project (one night he didn't even get home until 2:30 am, poor guy!). So he definately deserved a day off, and I'm still not sure why the kids didn't have school (Arbor day??), but we definately took advantage of having a day together. I told Jason that it was his turn to plan an outing and he was so cute to do some research and found a great hiking trail. First he scoped out a Peter Piper's that was on the way there and of course the kids had fun eating lunch there. When it came to the hiking, Kylie was so cute because she packed her back pack with a whole 72 hr kit, complete with a change of clothes, notebooks, toys, water, snacks, etc. I was trying to convince her to leave it in the car, but she was adament and we finally compromised and just took some of the stuff out. A couple minutes into the hike and she proved that being prepared payed off as she fell and skinned her knee, but immediately whipped out some Hello Kitty band-aids to remedy the injury. Between her and Jayden, they went through a total of 6 band-aids throughout the hike, so thankfully she was prepared. During the hike Jason also asked me if I had brought some chapstick. I told him that I hadn't but have no fear, once again Kylie's emergency back pack kit came to the rescue. Too bad she forgot to tell him that it was more like lipstick than chapstick :). So the hike was a little more intense than the other ones that we had been on, and it didn't help that it was so hot. Jason ended up taking turns carrying each of the kids on his back, awwww what a great dad. (Yes, I was glad that I could play the prego card and get out of carrying a monkey on my back :) We kept the kids going because we had promised that there was a cave at the top. We were excited when we finally made it up there, but were immediately disappointed to see that the "cave" had been taken over by bees so they couldn't even go exploring! What kind of bees make hives on the top of mountains?? The view was beautiful at the top and it was definately worth it. It was fun hanging out and letting the kids explore. They loved all the

(you can see the "cave" near the top where the rock changes colors)

lizards, although I was a bit paranoid about snakes and scorpions, but thankfully we didn't see any (only black widows). It's been fun to go on several hiking trips with the kids this year and I was sad to think that due to the summer heat and the new little one, we probably won't be able to go hiking again for a long time. At least it was a great hike to end on! As if planning a fun family outing wasn't enough to score hubby points, Jason also did something else that melted my heart. I am a little bit of a freak when it comes to a clean house. The kids had been playing all morning and the house was trashed but I didn't have time to clean it before we left. After the hike we went straight to our friend's house for pizza and to watch the Suns game (thanks Alisa!) and by the time we got home I was exhausted and went to bed, even though I hate going to bed with a dirty house. I thought Jason was staying up to watch tv, but when I woke up in the morning I found that he had stayed up to clean the house! If that's not romantic, I don't know what is. I love this boy! (PS-yes, Kandice, I was getting pretty grossed out always looking at that nasty worm too!)