Monday Hikes

With Ryan's busiest time during the weekend these days, he's begun to take Mondays off. For awhile we would find ourselves doing household projects or yard work, but for the past few months we've gone on a family hike each Monday morning. Sometimes it's just a short hike near town and sometimes we make more of a day out of it. These are pictures of the last few hikes.

It may not seem like much of a break to pack up three kids, sunscreen, camera, backpack, frontpack, camelback, picnic lunch, swimsuits, hats, shoes, fishing polls, bug spray and bear spray all before 9am in the morning. Then once we get to the trailhead, we strap on the kids and the packs, play cheerleader for Bridger when he gets tired, dole out snacks, nurse the baby on downed logs, change diapers on mossy boulders, keep the kids from falling in the creek (sometimes unsuccessfully), jump in after the kids when they do fall in, not to mention the actual hiking, which is tiring too. But this kind of outing is truly relaxing. It's so different than writing a sermon or doing the dishes or changing diapers on the changing table for that matter. There's always surprises like moose or huckleberries. Our minds are truly renewed and the kids get wicked tired.

Today would have been Joshua's third birthday so we headed into Idaho to Jerry Johnson Hot Springs. It was a scenic drive and hike right along the river and we saw a moose just as we arrived at the springs. As you can tell in the pictures, we chose Option B in these "clothing optional" pools (swimming suits)--there were some folks there ahead of us who chose Option A. (Sidebar: why is it always people you really don't want to see naked who are?) Tonight we went out to dinner, roasted marshmallows around the firepit in the backyard and looked through photos of Joshua.