Winter Hike

The boys went hiking a couple of weeks ago and just couldn't stand the thought that the girls in the family missed out on it. So, after hearing about it over and over the girls were finally convinced that we had missed out on something grand. Off we went for a fun filled hike in the snow. Did I mention that one of the girls is a Kindergartner??? Seriously, how much fun is it to hike through the snow with a very slow, quick to get tired, just turned 6 year old who refused to step in others footsteps and kept filling her snow boots up with snow? She did pretty OK for the first 1/4 of a mile =). Aside from the fact that she was convinced that she needed to make snowballs every few feet just in case we got lost we could find our way back (her own version of a snow filled Hansel and Gretal), which guaranteed we would be way behind everyone else at our already slow snail pace. Em's was also convinced that she saw elk prints and moose prints that just so happened to be the size of our dog's prints that we had taken along with us. Oh... speaking of a our dog- he has a unique talent to sniff disgusting things out like a deer carcass and then roll in it. Lovely. Of course when he found the deer carcass, Emma was convinced it was dinosaur bones because you know... we have so many of those living here!!! There were people living on the mountain not too far from the trail we were on who had dogs who barked and barked. Once again, Emma provided us entertainment by declaring that it was probably coyotes or wolves and we needed to be careful and should probably go home soon. From a Mom's point of view, exercise is good for the body, getting out of the house is much better than sitting at home but from a relaxation and fun point of view, plugging in a movie would of been so much easier and relaxing. I imagine that the boys were probably disappointed that the girls in the family just didn't get as excited about the hike as they had imagined we would. The highlight of the trek was that we did happen to spot a GIANT male moose. It was huge and we were all quite taken in by it. Hopefully one of our pictures turned out good enough to at least show it was really a moose. Next winter hike, Emma might need a babysitter.