Memorial Day Weekend Adventures

(warning: this is a long blog) This past weekend we went to the White Mountains of New Hampshire for a camping and hiking trip with Steve's sister Carri and her family. We camped two nights and hiked the "Falling Water" trail on Saturday. Our day hike, with 4 children and 1 5-month pregnant lady, took us 11 hours!!!! (By the way...we found out on Wednesday before leaving for our trip that Zach is expecting a little BROTHER at the end of September, he is beside himself with joy!-not really he still has no clue what is happening to mommy's belly) The kids were held back by the slow adults and they didn't complain the entire day. We were very impressed! Zach spent the day in the child carrier eating snacks, singing and napping. Every time Steve stopped to wait for others, Zach would tell him to keep hiking up the mountain! Steve said that he has never had such a wiggly and kicky backpack for a hiking trip.

These pictures are in chronological order of our trip. Please note that the mountain in the background of the first photo is the mountain that we all climbed! The trail was only 3.2 miles to the summit of 4,700 feet but it was a grueling hike and I still can't believe that we all made it to the top! It was too cold on the summit to stay and enjoy the view for very long, but we made it none-the-less, and then began the climb back down to camp...

at the trail head (before)

crossing the streams

YES! That's snow once we got close to alpine zone!

The summit!

That's how far we hiked.

Zach hiked the last little bit.

At the trail head (after)

An excavator in our backyard!

Yesterday an excavator came to visit for 2.5 hours, making our morning anything but routine!! Watching Zach's awe as this heavy piece of machinery was unloaded and then operated a few feet away from us, was a privilege. It was a chilly morning but I don't believe Zach felt the cold at all. The man operating the excavator was wonderful with both of us and didn't mind us watching and even offered Zach the opportunity to climb on and sit in the driver's seat. Zach was much too intimated to accept this offer for the first 2 hours but as the work was finishing he climbed up and 'drove'!! Today is sure to be much less exciting for our two-year-old boy!