Summer Vacay - Day 5: Hike

Ryan got off work today right around lunch time so we thought it would be perfect to go for a bike ride and have a picnic at a park. Perfect idea until Ryan got out in the yard to fix Brayden's bikes flat tire and we realized his bike was stolen. Total bummer. So we modified our plan and decided that we would drive across the bridge to the West side and hike down to the river bottom and walk around exploring. I was really excited about that idea because we grew up on that coulee edge and spent endless summer days doing that exact same thing and loving it. So off we went. It was pretty windy, but when is it not windy on the West side? We made our way down the red shale path while inwardly cringing as the kids ran on ahead of us down the hill. Ever heard the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty? Well, all I could think of while they are flying down that hill was that if they fell we wouldn't be able to put them together again. Thankfully we made it down to the bottom without any tumbles and set off exploring. We found a very over grown Ewoks village that I remember climbing all over as a kid and a lot of deer tracks left in the mud. There were beaver attacked trees and a few charcoaled stumps from a fire that totally burnt every to a crisp when I was younger.

After discovering Ewoks village and deciding it was too over grown to be playing on, we made our way towards the train bridge. It was a good walk and the kids seemed to enjoy the little bit of a challenge it offered by the path corroding in parts into the river. I think it was the first time the kids had seen a 'wild' cactus and Sydney collected pretty flowers. Once we made it to the bridge we climbed up on one of the pillars and had our picnic.

Once the picnic was over we made our way back to the trees where we ran around and played on the mountain bike paths. Aside from the average grumble from Madison everyone seemed to really enjoy it and Maddy seemed to perk up when she didn't have to walk anymore and got a ride on dads shoulders. Another nice day spent outside as a family.