explorads and waterfalls.

I'm so excited that we live in such a beautiful area. We have so many trails so close to our house, and we are all so eager to explore them. The girls did a nice 5 miler with us and didn't really complain at all. In fact, they ended up running down the mountain and saying that they want to do that hike again. It was only supposed to be a 3 mile loop up to the waterfall, but at the very beginning of the trailhead, I had us turn right instead of left....haha 2 miles later we were finally finding our correct path. but everyone actually loved the first part of the hike because we got to see such beautiful wildflowers and bridges that went over rivers.
The game changer---we got our kids their own water packs and they could get a drink whenever they wanted, and they got to carry their own snacks. Georgia was a champ and didn't cry at all while i carried her. And she kept her sunhat on the WHOLE TIME! even in the car on the way home haha. She was laughing so hard at that point... a case of the overtired granny faylenes, but when we told her she looked cute in her hat she would just laugh and laugh.
I''ll probably post about a lot more hikes this summer, and i'm not even sorry.

 The last 1/4 miles is climbing over huge boulders, and i think this was the girls favorite part of the hike.

not a bad view.

running down with daddy. I ran as fast as I could with Georgia. We pretended like we were getting them and that made her laugh and laugh.

this last picture is actually the reservoir in Mantua. Dan made his long run a trail run, and did his 6.5 miles up a mountain. easily could live in that beautiful little town. if only houses weren't ridiculously expensive there right now.