Hiking with Grady and more

So Tuesday I got a sitter for the older boys, strapped Grady in the Bjorn and went on a hike with some other Church members. It started out as a youth activity but as time went on I got to the point where I said "hey it's a public hike, anyone who wants to come can come just bring what you need". This is the group we came up with. Not bad considering we only average about 45- 50 people a week. Two hours later this was the top. I was told it was "A HIKE" but you could take kids. Well had I seen what I was in for before I probably wouldn't have taken Grady. We did at least an hour of boulder climbing. My little trooper did so well he only started crying the last 15 minutes on the way up and that was because he was hungry.
After having Grady literally strapped to me for 2 hours I was wanting to be away from him for a little while. Here is our oldest Young Woman Kayanna with Grady, she is an avid hiker and informed us all that it wasn't that bad.

Well maybe not so bad for someone who does this all the time, but our older people really struggled and my shoulders were killing me by the end of this. It was all worth it. Look at this beautiful lake at the top. There were fish every where. We saw tadpoles and frogs too.

The peek to the left is technically the top which my brother and Kayanna decided to venture to. I would have joined them had I not had Grady, but my shoulders did all they could do and I still needed to go back down. Next time, because I will do this again.

It was a little foggy so you can't see this view very well, but I think you get the picture. It was a little piece of Heaven up there. I forgot how much I loved hiking. It's been so long. Next year I think I will get a sitter for Grady and take the boys up. It would be hard but I think they could do it with another year behind them. I want my kids to like to do this kind of stuff anyway. It's good for the soul and in Maine you need to take advantage of these kind of recreational things because we don't have much else.

My brother Chip came along and it was nice to see him and see him hiking. He loves it. He loves it so much that he used to go on numerous backpack overnights on the Appellation trail. One of which I went with and is a memory I will never forget. It was good that he went or Kayanna our avid hiker would have been bored out of her mind because he was the only one who could barely keep up with her.

Sorry for the spit up, but I wanted a close up and didn't realize we caught him in the act until I got home. Oh well he is a baby after all. Besides him crying that one time because he was hungry, he was happy and content almost the whole time. As hard as it was carrying him up and actually harder carrying him down, because I felt like I was going to fall down all those boulders, I was happy to share this experience with my cute little guy. I love it here, it's beautiful, clean, and safe. Life doesn't get much better than this.
Even if it did take me 3 days to recoup.