That was long...

While on our camping trip, we went for a hike. You can't go camping and not go for a hike, right?

We hiked around this lake. The trail around the lake was less then a mile, but we opted to go up and to the nature center. It ended up being about 2.3 miles.

Cody (and the self-timer) took these before we really got into the hike. You caught the "up" part right? While it doesn't seem like a lot, it really is, especially for the kids. We went up in elevation about 250 feet. They did awesome. They were excited about it the whole time. Even when we got to the stairs. Holy cow. Had I been thinking I would have taken a picture of the stairs. There were soooo many. But I was only thinking about getting up the stairs without Maggie trying to drag me (we call Cody #1 and I'm #2 when it comes to Maggie, wherever Cody goes Maggie goes). This made the stairs and parts of the hike fun. She was literally attached to me, and at some points I was not who she wanted to be attached to. So, she would attempt to pull (makes for great impromptu training sessions because she also has to obey #2). I loved Eli's reaction to seeing the stairs. "Oh my word!" (that's his new phrase) Ya know what? He was the first one to the top! We were so proud of him. Cody and I were a little unsure if he would make it all the way up.

They did such an awesome job and they keep talking about it and wanting to know when we are going again. Next stop Marengo Cave, that should be fun :)