Hiking

We did our first official hike of 2014 today. We started the same hike on Saturday, but it was kind of a spur of the moment last minute thing and we didn't bring the carrier for Leif, who obviously can't hike very far. So we only made it a little ways on Saturday and said we would come back later. This morning at about 9 Austin asked me what we were going to do for Memorial Day. I suggested we go hiking even though it was a little late in the morning, but we decided to get the boys ready as fast as we could and go. We brought the carrier for Leif so he could ride and Asher was a champ and hiked the whole way. It was a pretty easy loop and was only about 2 miles, but there were a lot of rocky places and a few steep inclines and Asher did great. Austin carried Leif for the first half and I did the second half. He was a little upset about having to sit still for so long, but he got a break for a little while half way through and entertained himself while I was carrying him by pulling my hair, pushing my head around, and pointing to my ear and insisting that it was my eye.
Asher has lots of fun seeing new bugs and plants. He was particularly interested in the beetles and grasshoppers, but informed us quite clearly that he does not like bees, even though we lots of fat bumblebees. At the very beginning of the trail head there is a pond where we could hear lots of frogs and crickets. Asher told us many times that he liked the sound of the frogs and was excited to get back to them on the way back to the car. Asher fell a couple of times and scraped his leg up once, but made it through just fine.
 Even though we left much later than we would have liked, the hike ended up being really fun and not too hot. We plan on doing this hike a few more times this summer, but will have to go earlier in the day as the summer gets hotter.
After the hike the boys got to eat at McDonalds for a fun treat. (I just got a sandwich from Subway and brought it over to McDonalds to eat with them). Afterwards, naps were very needed to help recoup their energy from all that walking and sun!