Our First Family Hike

Today, we bit the bullet and took the kids hiking. I'd really been avoiding it because I thought it was going to be a disaster but Danny found our nice carrier backpack (actually meant for hiking) that we've basically NEVER used and we decided to venture out to Usery Mountain.

We left around 8:30 this morning and were on the trail by 9:20 (you know everything takes twice as long when you have kids :)

Tracy and a friend of hers decided to take the hike, too, so we have lots of great photos of all 4 of us!

We took the trail just halfway up, to Wind Cave. Evan hiked all by himself only needing a hand a couple of times. He actually stopped several times to "help" Mom and Aunt Tracy.

Everyone we passed mentioned what a big boy he was and how good he was doing.

We climbed 1.5 miles up, to 2,800 ft elevation (only an 800 foot gain)... it's very pretty up there.

At the trailhead...

On top of the world!

Climbing, climbing, climbing...

At Wind Cave...

Danny and Caitie coming down

Caitlin seemed to really enjoy the hike. Our typically noisy girl didn't make a peep all the way up and fell asleep on the way down!

We toyed with trying for the summit but it's a good thing we decided to let well enough alone because Evan was VERY tired and fell apart on the way back down. He's a TROOPER! We came across the park ranger and when he heard Evan climbed all the way to the cave he gave him a Jr. Park Ranger badge!

Halloween

We did actually find the Halloween pictures...

Couldn't manage to get Evan with his eyes open but they are still cute!

Tracy was an escapee from the asylum...she looks a little scary here! She and Evan are actually standing right in front of our house here. They had just hopped over to the neighbor's for some candy and were coming back to start some serious candy hunting!

And, just a few minutes later Caitlin was already tired of the whole thing! It was 80 and she was in a thick kitty costume...hot, hot, hot!

I wrapped up little chocolates with my business card and gave them out at each of the houses we visited. People didn't really know what to make of that!

The Cute Kitty and the Brave Fireman!

And that's about all you will know about Halloween because I can't find the pictures we took for some reason :(

Hopefully it's just a momentary loss...they were so adorable!

I apologize for my husband...

He LIVES to freak people out, scare them, do gross things JUST to see their reaction. I'm sure he's really bummed that he can't be there when you read about the scorpions and black widows so...please leave him a comment!

It would make him very happy :)

More office pets

First off so that everyone knows, this is Danny. I realize that it says that it is posted by Kristin but that is because I just haven't taken the time to open my own account. So I have actually written several posts like Vulture City, Office pets and so on. I'll make a point to identify myself so not to confuse anyone.

Anyway, I thought you guys would like to meet Scorpio. He's a very friendly little guy just so long as you don't look at him, touch him or blow on him.

 

Cute little guy, isn't he.

Office Pets

Here are some of the cool pets that we find at my office. I happened to have found all four of these. Since I started working here three months ago the pets that we have found are tied: four black widows to four scorpions. Believe it or not these make for a fun day. Pretending to throw them at people and such. We come up with our own little games.

The top picture shows all four (Precious, Cuddles, Snuggly and Fluffy)

  This picture just shows Cuddles and Fluffy. Cuddles is on the left. If the picture makes them seem big it's because they are.

Didn't have a camera when we had our scorpions and now it's getting to cool for them to be out. But I'll get some soon.

No humans were hurt in the taking of these pictures.

A Little Game of Hide-n-Scream!