I love hiking with my girls. But sometimes circumstances call for a solo flight. In this instance, I was blessed to have Helen join me. The leaves are turning, the air is crisp and winter weather is just around the corner. An a last minute lament to my dear friend, we decided to take advantage of the last few minutes of fall in Idaho. Yesterday we packed Lady up at 6 in the morning and drove up to the Palisades Creek Trail for a 15 mile hike. And we did it in October without gloves! oops. Needless to say, it was a little cold as we started on the trail but we were loaded with good food, great company, beautiful scenery and light hearts (thanks to coming off General Conference weekend).
We did our best to bundle up with our meager gloveless supplies.
The hike was beautiful! It was so colorful, even in the early, pre-sunrise, morning! If you look closely you can see our little canine companion for the trip. Lady was so weird this trip. She's done the hike before, even adding an additional mile with having had to park in the lower parking lot and adding a partial hike around the lake previously. For some reason she was just antsy the whole time. It's funny, she always runs ahead about 15 feet and then comes back to check on me but this time, every time and I mean EVERY time we stopped, she was whining in anticipation of going again. Maybe she missed Atlas. I just wasn't trusting of his 9 month old capabilities even though he's a giant, to believe I wouldn't have to eventually carry him down the mountain.
We had some great discussions catching up on each other's lives, reviewing conference highlights, making future adventuring plans, and repeatedly commenting on the beauty that surrounded us. At one point Helen was talking about the life of George Washington (she's always a wealth of knowledge) and how he had such high expectations for his military leaders and how his strict views on alcohol led to better behaved troops. We both concluded he was a man way ahead of the times. Some of the experiences she read about discussed how he was a divinely protected leader, even the Native Americans indicated he was protected by the Great Spirit. At times he would return from the front lines with bullet holes through his clothing. I was intrigued by the information and would love to learn more about General Washington. I know my dad has always deeply admired his faith. One of his favorite paintings that has adorned the walls of my childhood home since I was a kid, is that of General Washington kneeling in prayer beside his stallion. I believe it is known as The Prayer at Valley Forge.
The fall colors were beautiful! The lake... not so much. A few months ago when I went up there the lake was so clear and blue! This time the waters were much lower and looked a little murky which was a bit of a disappointment. But the trip was well worth it just for views such as this one. What beautiful country we live in! I'm so grateful for it! For the freedoms we enjoy within it! I'm grateful for a body that allows me to appreciate it! And especially for parents who will hang out with my kids for a few hours so I can go a little bit further, a little bit faster, every once in a while. LOL.
And I'm grateful for my new phone that has a better camera to capture it all with! This is Helen showing me a feature on my phone that I didn't know existed... and my apparent shock. Who knew you could signal your phone with a high five to capture a pic?!
That afternoon after the hike, Helen and I took the kids to New Sweden Farms. It's this fantastic Fall attraction with corn mazes, and bouncy floors, playgrounds, a small petting zoo, horse and wagon rides etc. They even haunt the corn maze after dark. You'll notice our pics are in the daylight LOL.
Each of the kids took a turn on the horses and then we split up. Jaedyn and her friend Veka went off to be the cool kids without parents and the rest of us headed to the corn maze.
Check out these mazes! Very patriotically themed. We went in the kiddie maze and I handed over my phone with the pic to Lilia and told her to lead us out. After a few turn arounds the 3 girls, working together, did it!
This maze... we will attempt on another day when my 4 year olds is not distracted by every corn cob and a random cat. And maybe when I haven't already hiked 15 miles. LOL But this maze was dedicated to the fallen heroes in memory of 9/11. What a beautiful maze!
And last but not least, this kid gave me the scare of my life as we were leaving! She and Lilia wanted to say good-bye to the sweet little calf at the petting zoo. I quickly texted Chad, who was getting off of work at that moment, to let him know we were headed back home. I looked back and McKinley was about 5 steps behind Lilia. I told them both to hurry and looked down at Chad's response. He asked a question and in the time it took me to type "I think so", McKinley disappeared. Lilia asked, "Where's McKinley?" and I looked up to point out that she was 5 steps behind her... only she wasn't. She was nowhere. She had completely disappeared. The place was open, there weren't crowds, but McKinley was nowhere to be found. Immediate in my mind was the thought, "She could not have disappeared that quickly, that efficiently, without help". Freak out. I recognized I was being irrational and prayed for calm as I began the search. 10 minutes. 10 minutes I looked everywhere and then looked again. She was nowhere to be found. In desperation I hollered to Helen and to the other girls who were playing at the playground. No one had seen her. It was such a scary experience. I finally started giving her description out to people and they started looking too, when I heard Helen holler that she found her. I looked across the playground to see the ticket lady walking back from the parking lot with McKinley in her arms. Unbeknownst to ticket lady, who was too far away to be involved in the drama, she had happened to glance up to see this lone small child, standing sadly beside a car out in THE. PARKING. LOT. Sensing something was off, she approached and saved the day. How in the world did she get past all of us without any of us seeing her?? I have no answers. But I don't need them. I'm just so grateful that that was the case rather than the 101 terrors that played in my mind on repeat during those terrible 10 minutes. Needless to say we had a lesson on the drive home about finding a grown up in charge at any future events should separation occur. Which it won't. Because no parent ever needs to experience that twice!
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