Cooper was already struggling at the beginning with not wanting to "climb a mountain." It was an uphill walk for the first stretch. When we saw other hikers on the way down, I asked them if they thought our crew could handle it. I was referring to the length/difficulty/hill with a whiny four-year-old. Their main concern for us was the wind. I dismissed them and kept plodding along.
The next hiker echoed the same concern and told us more specifically, "When you go around that curve, hang onto your kids and secure your hats."
And here's what they were referring to:
It was loud and unsettling, so I decided to sit down to stabilize ourselves and to calm them down with a snack. As you can see, they cried the whole time and couldn't even concentrate to eat their snack.
The view was pretty, but we didn't really get to enjoy it or see the better views further up because I made the call that it wasn't worth it.
Calmer now on the downhill, less windy section.
Calvin spotted another cactus plant. We were happy to see these but a little disappointed not to see any of the big saguaro cactuses on our trip (I mistakenly thought that they'd be in New Mexico but apparently are only in a small section of Arizona).
Since our hike ended prematurely, we went to another park (Wonderlake) with some pretty views. Amy walked around the lake a bit while the boys and I stayed at the playground.
We also found a neighborhood geocache. As we got closer, we realized that another family was also hunting for the cache. It's always fun to meet another cacher out on the trail!
And, somewhat pushing it, we also headed to Eben Fine Park, a beautiful park along Boulder Creek.
After playing on the playground, we walked along the creek until we found a spot to set up our hammocks.
The boys (all of them!) love throwing rocks in the water.
Back at the house for some much-needed down time
Aunt Jenny left some special gnome/fairy visitors for us to discover
Here are the other two dogs: Ellie and Harley
That night, we headed to the renowned Pearl Street. It's a walkable street with many upscale shops (which we didn't check out), but I was mostly looking forward to unique street performers, the fountains, and the Farmers Market. There were no street performers, not all the boys wanted to splash in the fountains, and there wasn't much at the Farmers Market for us to buy.
We did get some fruit popsicles
And then stopped for ice cream on the way back, so they were happy!
Partway through the evening, I noticed that Carter's eye was red, swollen, and drippy. It got worse as the night went on, and we had no idea where it came from. A cold compress that night ended up being all he needed, and he woke up the next day with it completely better. Praise God!
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