Labor Day hike and BBQ

Chris is loving all the access to beautiful hikes! He has taken the older kids a few times to hike the Y on the Tuesday Morning Late Starts. For Labor Day, he wanted to do a bigger hike, like Y Mount, or 'Pride Rock' - as we sometimes call Squaw Peak.  I wasn't looking forward to the holiday feeling like a normal day where Chris gets up and leaves with the big kids and I stay home with Freddy, Max and Theodore, so I suggested we find a hike that we can all do. Chris thought of Stuart Falls and invited Thom and some of his kids to join us. We thought we were getting out early but the parking lots and surrounding roads by the trailhead were PACKED. We had to park at Aspen Grove.  

I hadn't really done much, physically, since Theodore was born, but I just figured that I would just be walking and it was only a couple of miles, and I could just take it slow if I wanted. Most of that was true, except the milage was a little longer than I thought... more like 5 miles total, and hiking and walking are NOT the same thing. I did just fine on the way up to the falls, and we enjoyed a nice break at the falls, ate some snacks played in the water a bit, but I lost steam about halfway down and was pretty tired as we walked into the parking lot. But it was super nice to get out of the house and do an adventure as a family! Freddy did amazing and walked the whole way and never asked to be held. Max just hung out in the backpack the whole time except at the falls where he enjoyed throwing rocks into the water (narrowly missing people sometimes - it was pretty crowded!). Gwen, Charlie and Alec practically ran up and down. They're all really great hikers! As we got passed by people, they'd often comment about the cute little baby in my wrap, "Oh, look a really little one!" etc.. And if someone asked me Theo's age, I'd smile and say "4 weeks!" and the return comment was always some variation of, "Good for you, Mama!"  Chris made a funny comment after one of these exchanges imagining them saying to him, "And how old is your baby?" (meaning our 30 lb Max on his back" "20 months" "Good for you, Daddy!" haha.

Later in the afternoon we had a BBQ with Chris's parents and siblings and their kids, some Woodward family members and I invited some of my unmarred cousins and freshman friends at BYU.  The food was delicious... (homemade ice cream.... yum) and we had a fun game of soccer going. Gorgeous day with lots of family time.