Hiking at Amicalola Falls

Wendy wanted to go hiking and asked if we wanted to go.  Todd had a tennis match, so I packed a picnic lunch and packed up the kids to drive up with Wendy and her son Logan.  Owen mounged on grapes.

Chloe enjoyed a jelly wrap since she was catching a break from her 'healthy diet.'

It was an absolutely gorgeous day with no clouds in the sky and highs around 78 in North Georgia on this afternoon.

Wendy brought back a park map for us and was happy with me before we started hiking.

Owen wanted to jump in after seeing her play pat-a-cake with Logan.

Once Owen started playing, it looked like a lot more fun to Logan :)

After our picnic lunch, we drove farther into the park and walked over to the top of the waterfall.  The kids thought they should climb the fence at the top so they could see it better.

Here is the view from above.

See?  Everyone is still happy with me.  It will only be 425 steps!  No problem.

And so, we start our descent.

Still happy with me.  :)  By this point, the tops of my thighs were shaking good.  Even when I stopped an rested.  Very bizarre.

Chloe was being a bit of an all-around pill.  Her face is a pretty good reflection of how I felt about her behavior on this hike. :|

Who wears jeans in the middle of summer?

This is at the bottom of the 425 steps.  The kids thought they should climb up the rocks on the side of the path.

They made others a bit nervous that they would fall, tumble across the path and down into the continuing waterfall about 10 feet away.

Not so happy anymore.  The original plan was for either Wendy or myself to hike back up to the top.  Alone.  Without any kids or 30 pound backpacks and then drive around to the bottom to collect the others.  Did I mention we hiked down an additional 175 steps before turning around to start our hike back up?  Yeah.  Not happy at all.

Here we are coming back up from the bottom of the additional 175 steps we hiked down from AFTER the 425 steps we hiked down first.  It was just a few steps, really.

It was a pretty waterfall.

Unfortunately, there wasn't any really good vantage spot to photograph the entire waterfall.  So much of it was blocked by trees, leaves or steps.  So this was as good as it got.  :)

Owen was happy the whole time.  But then, he's my happy boy.  This hike didn't phase him one bit.

At least someone was still happy with me :)

Others?  Not so happy.

Once back at the top, we let the kids play in the stream leading to the waterfall.  The kids had fun walking in the water, even though it was extremely cold.

Once their feet were like icicles, we got out and the kids all had fun high-fiving Ms. Wendy.

We watched our shadows.

And then we headed home.  Before we got out of the mountains, we noticed this lone chimney standing in an empty field we hadn't noticed on our drive up.

It had two sides where fires could be burned inside, which made me wonder what the home looked like surrounding this double fireplace.

It was a wonderfully fun day, in spite of shaking quadriceps, a not-so-happy friend on the return uphill climb and a non-listening daughter.  For the next three days, it was my calves that reminded me of this fun.  Every time I walked down the steps inside our house.  I found out I had muscles I didn't even know were in my body.  And Owen?  He felt no pain or soreness in the following days.  I was glad for him, but thought to myself that I wish I had a little more youth in me.  Now I know I need to work harder to get that back!

Moving Day

We have already given away our blue furniture to one friend.  This morning we gave our big entertainment center to Martin.  Before he arrived for us to load up our minivans with the three separate cabinets, our tv from the family room fell off the sofa and broke.  Turns out it wasn't a very good temporary spot.  Whoops.  

Chloe dressed up for moving and was all decked out in her beads.

Once we arrived at Martin's to unload the cabinets, the kids were all about singing and dancing.  Rockwell's Somebody Is Watching Me was booming on Todd's radio, which helped.  Owen absolutely loves this song.  Love that the knees are bent and he's leaning back to belt out this song.

Notice that the neck silly band is doubling as a microphone?

Martin couldn't stop laughing over the singing and dancing. :)

Owen has some serious moves.

After we finished unloading the minivans, we headed over to Dagwood's for lunch.

Chloe was her normal self.  A little monkey, exploring the outskirts of our booth.

The pizza was most excellent :)

Backyard Fun

Owen wanted to play with Mommy for 15 minutes before going to bed.  He raked up the backyard without complaint so neither of us would step in dog poop.  Yay Owen!

He got out the beach ball and the goal to get points was to get the ball to drop in the other's territory untouched.  Owen would laugh just as much when I got excited about the ball dropping on his side as when I'd show horror and dismay over the ball landing on my side.

We had so much fun together.

Owen doesn't look seven, or even almost eight to me.  At least not in this picture.  This reminds me of his three or four year old face with big, sweet cheeks.

Did you notice the silly band around his neck?  This boy is all about silly bandz.  And kicking balls.

When I told him time was up and we needed to go inside to get ready for bed, he went in smiling.  With no complaining.  It is in his behavior that I see our boy growing up.  It is in his willingness to help and to listen.  This boy makes us so proud.