Family Hike

 On a beautiful Saturday in May, we went on a family hike.  We spent the morning working in the garden as a family and needed a more-fun-less-work activity to finish off the day.  We went about five miles from our house in a direction we usually don't go (away from town).  It's a part of national forest that's way off the main road (meaning we didn't see another soul there).  We just pulled off, left the car and started hiking uphill.

When Mike was young, they used to do lots of logging there.  He said for a while you could never drive down their road without passing a logging truck.  I'm glad that's petered off because that would be terrifying considering how twisty and crazy the road is.

It was wonderful!  The kids loved exploring, collecting sticks and rocks, and looking for animals.  We found lots of cool quartz crystals and tried to get them to break into just the right shapes.

 This is not a very becoming picture of me (not pregnant, just frumpy), but it shows the kids' personalities so well that I'll post it anyway.

The kids were really excited to bring their backpacks and carry all their "necessities." 

Josh (and Caleb) love sticks (and rocks).  If we had let them, they each would have brought home an armload of sticks and a backpack full of rocks.

We all had a fun time.  It was such a simple thing to do.  It didn't cost us anything and it didn't even take lots of time.  We were thrilled to see how such a simple family activity meant so much to our kids.  Mike and I decided that we really need to do this more often.  We all love the outdoors and spending time together, so there really isn't any reason we can't do family hikes more often!