Leaves with Tree; You With Me: Mt. Scott Hike

A lot of times the blog reads like a highlight reel -- showcasing the happiest and most gilded moments of our family life. I don't intentionally skip over the crumby stuff -- i just don't usually take pictures of it. And on those kinds of days, I usually don't feel like sitting down to write. I want to try to be more forthcoming about the harder realities of life -- and give an honest picture of our life (though I have to say that we have a really happy family. We love to be together. And we have lots of fun -- even on the most mundane of days -- we just sort of try to make the best of things. So the happiness portrayed isn't a charade and it's not false -- but it's not the complete truth because there are definitely bad days, lost tempers, disappointments, difficulties, heartaches...)

One not so shiny day was the August afternoon we decided to pack up the family, head to Crater Lake, and hike Mt. Scott. May have been a little ambitious with a two month old, but as it turned out, Caroline was the least of our problems. About 50 steps up the trail Lily started complaining. And wilting. And refusing to go on. At first, we tried to encourage her kindly. But the kindness wore off quickly and then we got irritated and just flat out told her she needed to shape up and tough it out. But then she started complaining about a blister and we realized that her feet really weren't properly outfitted for hiking and she really did have a big raw spot on her heel. Nate was irritated at me for not making sure she had proper hiking shoes. I was irritated that our adventure was tanking. Henry was disappointed, too. Eventually, we all turned around and headed back to the car. We decided to drive around the rim of the lake and stop at all the scenic viewpoints, but as we drove around, huge gusts of smoke from the forest fires started blowing in and we couldn't even see the lake. Add another log to the "gee, this sucks" pile :) We were pretty bummed, but we felt really bad for people we met who had flown in from the east coast or driven all the way from Montana to see Crater Lake -- it was a horrible day to be a tourist!

Before everything went south, we snapped a few pictures of our little band of hikers. And a few pics of the lake before the smoke blew in.

Bad, bad shoes for hiking! Cute little lady nonetheless. And growing sooo fast! I just donated those jeans to goodwill -- already too short just 3 months later!