A Family Hike

Sunday morning I woke up and headed out to the grocery store.  I figured I would get there before it got crowded and I needed to get food for the week since the girls would be going back to school and I had all my meal plans ready to go.  I had a lot of things that I wanted to get done that day, change sheets, tons of laundry, clean the house a bit, decorate with some new items I got for Christmas and birthday etc.  Once I pulled into the garage all my things to do went out the window!  I had been wanting to go on a hike as a family for awhile but kept putting it off because we were tired, busy or just being lazy but no excuses today we were going.  I told the hubby we are going on a hike today and then we told the girls.  They were both excited especially when I told Kayla to gather her new binoculars and wildlife activity book to take with us.  I packed a quick healthy lunch, grabbed a snack and off we went up the mountain.

Brooklyn ran from sign to sign jumping up and down for us to read about each plant

The weather was perfect, slightly cold in the shade but warm in the sun.   The girls enjoyed exploring and we saw so many different kinds of birds, lots of acorn woodpeckers that we could also hear all over and a huge red tailed hawk.  Kayla enjoyed writing them all down in her wildlife journal.  

I loved the way these pinecones looked like tiny flower blooms so I had the girls collect them for me I now have a little basket full of them, little memories.

It was so nice to be out in the fresh air and enjoying the beauty around us, I decided that we would try to go every weekend when we don't have places to be and  weather permitting of course.  We will definitely be more prepared next time, I'm going to try and pick up some better shoes for the girls to wear so they don't slip going down hill and we will be leaving earlier so we have more time to hike.  By the time we got up the mountain to begin our hike it was already 11 o'clock so after about an hour in Brooklyn was ready to eat lunch and wanted to get back to the picnic spot.  

It was such a nice way to spend a Sunday together I'm looking forward to our next trip!