Michael took some vacation time last week, and on his first day off, we decided to hike the Cascades! It was our very first hike with kids (I can’t believe we haven’t gone since before Kaya was born), and overall, it went really well.
Kaya was a trooper and hiked about 1.5 miles of the 4-mile trail. That is no small feat, especially since there were a lot of rocks and somewhat steep slopes. Both girls loved watching the water move down the river. I loved watching them enjoy nature. After about an hour and a half, we reached the amazing waterfall at the top. We let Kaya take her shoes and socks off to feel the icy cold water with her toes. She loved it. I’m so grateful for this little family of mine and these beautiful places to explore together. We made our way back down, which almost seemed more difficult for Kaya to navigate than the way up. I will admit, there were some slippery parts of the trail that I was nervous about traversing while wearing Kaelyn. We might wait until they are a bit older to do this particular hike again. Both kids were so exausted that they fell asleep before we even reached the bottom of the trail.These simple memories together are some of the sweetest.