Backpacking Lava Lake

Last summer we took Eliana camping for the first time. So this summer we decided to attempt backpacking for the first time. We took Ellie up to Lava Lake. It's a 3 mile uphill hike with a beautiful lake at the end. It's long enough to justify backpacking, and short enough that we thought maybe it wouldn't be too hard with Eliana. And...

Sure enough, she hiked pretty much the entire way by herself!! 3 miles at 3 years... not bad! By the time she's 10 she'll be able to go hiking with Leif. =D (And I can spend the weekend scrapbooking by myself, ha ha!) So... it was a good trip! So good, in fact, that we're going to attempt a 2 night backpacking trip this weekend....

So, we didn't get too many pictures on this little trip, but we did get a few. Here's the lake we hiked to:

Isn't it beautiful? We love this particular hike.

Leif and Ellie ate breakfast down by the lake and then I read while they pumped water. Ellie was even helpful on this trip and pumped a liter of water all by herself! She also helped Leif put up the tent. She enjoyed being his little helper!

Hiking the M with Daddy

Leif and Ellie enjoy hiking together. Most recently he took her up to the M and got these pictures of her:

Isn't she funny running down the trail? She loves to run!

First Family Hike of the Year: Middle Cottonwood Creek

It was nice.

Flowers, water, leaves, moss, bridges, kisses, and family. It's good to get out and play.

Hiking Ousel Falls

Yesterday we went for a little snow hike with our friends Ben, Cathy, and Lily. As you can tell from the picture above, we had a beautiful hike in the frozen woods - lots of snow, flocked trees, and frozen water falls!

We even got Cathy to take a few family pictures for us!

November Hike to the M

A little over a week ago Leif took Eliana hiking up to the M. Though we've had a pretty warm fall this year, it has snowed a couple times, so there was snow on the ground when they went up. The view from the M is always great, but it's particularly beautiful when the valley is covered in snow!

Hiking the Letter M

Last week we decided to go on a family hike one evening. We started out at the Fish Technology Center, but decided the trail was too mosquitoey so we headed across the road to hike the M instead. The whole drive out to the area Ellie was pretty excited. She spotted something up on the hill and then pointed at it saying, "Letter M!! Letter M!!" It was really cute. We didn't even point it out to her. She managed to walk just about the whole way up to the M, which is impressive, because it's a mile and a half uphill. But she did it, and she did a good job staying on the trail and not being too slow. When we finally got to the M Ellie was ready for a little rest and something to drink. Oh, and some time enjoying the view before we headed back down.

The hike is pretty this time of year. The wildflowers were abundant and everything was yellow and purple as far as we could see.

Along the way down the trail Ellie kept slipping and tripping on the sandy trail, so we sat down for a bit to give her scraped knee a rest and she decided that we ought to switch hats. She was very silly about it!

Because Ellie kept tripping and slipping she was carried by Leif most of the way down. She was pretty tired, too.

We walked home to the sunset and enjoyed the view, the flowers, and the contrails in the sky. Pretty nice way to spend the evening as a family if you ask me!