Hiking with Friends

We have a group of four families that we do things with. We all live away from our families so we have become very close. Our good friends the Larson's decided that that had had enough of all of us so they moved. HA! We had to have one last outing all together before they moved.  We went on a picnic and hiked around Hematite Lake. (This was back in September)

Here is the kids table.

Camden, Alli, Apri, Rachael, Maggie, Claire, Jonathan and Olivia

Parents table

JJ, Paul, Julie, Angelo, Renee, Wayne, Me and Nicholas

Nicholas' first hike in the backpack.

On the trail

I didn't get very many pictures of the older kids because they were always so far ahead of us.  We caught up with them at a little look out point.  If you notice all of the kids have walking sticks.  Alli and Jonathan brought all of theirs.  We have quite a few because whenever grandpa comes to visit or we go camping with grandpa they always have to carve hiking sticks.  They love it and their friends loved them too.

About halfway through the hike it started to get dark and by the end it was pitch black.  The kids got a little scared but we made it through by singing songs as we hiked along. It turned out to be quite fun hiking in the dark and singing songs at the top of our lungs. Although at one point it didn't help when Alan started to sing,"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my."  All of the kids stopped in their tracks and said, "Are there bears?!!!!"  We had to reassure them that there were not any bears.

When we got back to the cars they all ate Ding Dongs.  YUMMY!  They were all so happy.