Fall Family Hiking Trip 2012

We asked the girls if they wanted a lot of Christmas presents or if they rather go somewhere. They chose to go somewhere. We wanted to go before the weather got too cold. We decided to go back to the Buffalo River. We stayed at an amazing cabin. It had a golf cart, hot tub and fire pit! We played games, hiked, and fished. We hiked the Alum Cove Trail. It is our favorite trail so far. Tuesday night after the kids went to bed Luke and I relaxed in the hot tub. It was so clear out and we sat and enjoyed the stars (and quiet). It was the only relaxing we did the whole trip! I'll never forget it.

We couldn't have picked a better week!  The weather was amazing and the trees were breathtaking.   We made some wonderful memories.  This may be a new fall family tradition!

Spring Break!

This week is spring break. I am so happy to have Kinnison home with us. We really miss her when she is in school. I can't believe that she will be graduating from Kindergarten in a couple months!

Monday Kanyon turned 9 months old. He is pulling himself up and getting into everything. He'll be walking soon.

Sunday we drove to Deer, Arkansas. We rented a cabin there for two nights. It was absolutely beautiful. On Sunday we hiked the Lost Valley Trail. We chose the difficult path on the way in. It was very steep with lots of narrow spots and there was a lot of people on the trial. I was a nervous wreck. I had Kanyon in a carrier. He is over 20 lbs, so I had my hands full, which left Luke with both girls. They did great though. When we got to Cob Cave I decided I shouldn't even attempt to go in with Kanyon. There was a lot of people in the cave and it was really slick so Luke decided to take the girls one at a time. He took Kimber in first and Kinnison decided she didn't want to go. We followed the trail by the water on the way out. It was beautiful and much easier!

Monday we planned to hike to the Glory Hole. We weren't sure how far our cabin was from the trail and Luke forgot his map, so we started driving. We drove about 25 miles in a huge circle. The trail was about 15 miles from our cabin. :) The drive was beautiful though. And, if we didn't take the detour I would have never seen the Arkansas Grand Canyon. We had to hurry on the hike because it was sprinkling. We got to see the Glory Hole and it was absolutely beautiful. As soon as we took our picture it started storming. We hiked out as fast as we could, but we were completely soaked by the time we got to the car. We took baths when we got back to the cabin. We cooked supper and then played some board games and watched some movies.

Sunday and Monday evening we drove around looking for elk. We saw a lot of them! It was a great getaway. We had a lot of fun and made some great memories. We will definitely be going back soon!

Tomorrow Mom and I are taking the kids to Oklahoma City. We are going to do some shopping and hopefully get to swim!