Climbing a Mountain

Here are the pictures from our trip to our state's mountain!  I have to tell you that these girls are in great shape!  They absolutely kicked my butt going up the mountain.  They weren't even out of breath.  We started out on the east side, on "Sunrise Trail," but had to turn back after about 10 minutes because I had a cooler and it was just a little to steep to climb with one hand.  So we turned back and drove over to the west side where it was pretty supposed to be family friendly and pretty  much stone steps up to the top!  Yes, there were steps and yes it was still a work out.

On the west side, before we climbed there was a little rock house and a lot of rocks to explore!  The girls had a fun time climbing around that crop of rocks, and I had to remind them we were there to conquer the mountain-let's head up!  Boy, are those girls quick.  At one point, as I was struggling to keep up, Brenna ran back down the mountain to meet me and say, "Mom, here, I'll take the cooler."
      I was indignant and proud, "No, Brenna I can take it.  It's fine."
     But Brenna persisted, asked for it again, and with no pride, I said, "Great, here it is!"
     And before I could say anything else, she was off to the top to rejoin her friends, a little heavier for the cooler she now had in her hands.  I don't deserve her.  She is too good to me! 
  After we climbed to the top, and looking back down the mountain, my pride kicked in again, and I thought, well, it wasn't too bad.  I could do that again!   After climbing around and getting the lay of the land, we began to eat lunch.  We found a great little crop of rocks to sit on!  But a little bit of rain came our way and some of the girls got nervous that it would be a bigger rain and so we packed up in the middle of lunch and headed down.  The grey clouds did look ominous so I may have been easy to convince, especially being responsible for all of them.  :)  However, as we headed down it cleared up and blue skies appeared once again. 

Once we were down and we realized we had some time to burn, the girls decided they wanted to try the Sunrise Trail again since I no longer needed the cooler.  So, I told them we had 30 minutes and wherever we were in 15 minutes we needed to turn around and go back.  If they could agree to that, we would go!  And off they went, their agreement implied!  Darn if they didn't climb that trail in 15 minutes; they were determined to get to the top.  I was left shaking my head and crawling after them!  We turned around exactly at the top, exactly 15.32 minutes later and headed down.  Don't kid yourself, ladies, those leg muscles of mine were screaming at me every minute, even heading down.  The girls were a big blur and I was proud that I was able to keep them in my sites even if it was from a distance.  The only thing that slowed them down, was Brenna's fall....if not down the mountain, then down a ravine in the mountain.  She tripped over a rock, the poor girl.  Why Lindsey and Lyla decided to show their domination over a branch to make Brenna feel better, I am not quite sure, but Brenna and Mack laughed and they all shared a moment of closeness as they made sure Brenna was fine. 

We finally finished and headed home!  Our ride home was fun as they talked about their day of peak performances and the deer they had sited on the Sunrise Trail.  I made it home exactly in time for Katie to put Mack right into the car so that they would be in time for their next fun adventure. (I promise 20 minutes next time).   It was a great day and really a great place to visit.  I will say that we got there before 11am and it wasn't crowded.  By the time we left at 1:30 it was getting pretty busy with some tourist buses and big cars.