Thank goodness I'm not a pioneer...

My friend Emily has been here visiting. She arrived in the evening on Thursday. Friday and Saturday she spent at a training for her career (she's an occupational therapist). That means we had Sunday and Monday to play before she flew home Tuesday. Well, Sunday is a special day. We went to church then took naps. We were supposed to go do something or go somewhere but nope. We slept. Monday is a different story entirely.
We got up, got ready and headed out to see some of God's beautiful creation. Seriously, I love the NW. It is beauty everywhere.
We decided to hike up to the top of this waterfall.

Not just to the brigde, but to the top. The sign said 1 mile. Really how hard could it be? Well, the sign lied. We passed the 1 mile mark and kept going. This wouldn't have been so bad had it been just Emily and I or even D. We had K and A with us too. That's what made it so difficult. Obviously, someone had to carry A since she doesn't walk. We did have the good sense to put the monkey leash on K so she didn't fall off the side of the mountain. (A very real possibility!) Still, 11 switchbacks are hard on a sleep deprived 2 year old.
So I packed A in the baby backpack while Emily alternated holding the monkey leash/ carrying the monkey package. At one point, near the top, Em was carrying K and she fell asleep. That's how worn out she was. A slept part of the hike too. It was fun and awesome and all that but also very hard.

Favorite parts:
me: "It's a good thing I wasn't a pioneer or my family would have died."

Emily let D carry her sunglasses. He dropped them. Then dropped them again when he tried to pick them up. Then looked at them and said, "I ruined them." (he broke one of the ear pieces off.)

lady on trail: "Wow, you are two brave mommas." (or crazy) whatever.

There was a big puddle covering a section of the trail. Emily had K by the arms and was counting, "1....2...3..." to hoist her over the puddle. Emily said three and started to hoist K just in time for K to jump in the puddle and splash water everwhere. (perfect timing and seriously funny!)

When we reached the top, Em had to put a sleeping K down. She tried to lay her down gently but K just flopped down face first and didn't move. She was so out!

The stupid bench of deception. About 2 switchbacks up there was a bench to sit on. This deceptively led us to believe there would be benches here and there. There weren't.

Also, the switchback markers... near the bottom of the trail a switchback was counted every other curve. At the top, a switchback was counted at every trail bend.

As soon as we got back to the car and were all loaded it started to hail/snow. SO GLAD TO NOT BE ON THE TRAIL!