Backpacking with Six

Here are the photos of our first backpacking attempt. It was just a few weeks before the one with our friends and we wanted to make sure we could do it with all four before we dragged someone else into our "issues." It went pretty well though!

This hike was 2 miles in in the Columbia Gorge. Cliff carried everything and I carried Lochlan. 

It was Cambria's first attempt at hiking by herself that far. She was such a trooper and decided that if she jumped off of trail rocks and roots all along the way, it would help her hike better. And even though it took much longer because of her and antics which involved:

showing us every rock that she found on the trail...

posing along the path...

and requesting being photographed by trees...

 

it went really pretty well!

 

The kids were excited to bring their Webkins with them. 

They were very patient with the rest of us, but still ran ahead to report what they could see. 

 

See them under there?

And I trailed behind, listening to a little two year old jabbering away in my ear and asking as many questions as he could remember how to say, almost all of them started with: "Mama...?"

and took a bunch of shots of flowers, plants, waterfalls and viewpoints that make up this gorgeous area. 

Once we got to the site, Cliff set up and started making dinner (those freeze-dried meals where you just add water) 

while I made sure Lochlan didn't die. He's just accident prone!

Mason found some charcoal and started putting on warpaint.

and the kids started making a fire ring.

It was a little drizzly but not too bad and after dinner it got pretty dark. So we laid down the little kids and played several games of Sleeping Queens by flashlight. 

Then after breakfast, we headed back down the trail. 

Kaiah got really low once 

and had to have a juice and a granola bar before her energy popped back up again.

but once she felt better we were off again and Mason yelled, "Mama! Look a bald eagle!" 

Cambria would not be outdone, however, and she yelled, "Mama! Look I found a slug!" 

One last gorgeous view of the gorge and we reached our car. 

We hiked out on my birthday and when we stopped to visit Mimi on our way back, they all sang to me and mom showed them my baby book. 

It was fun and memorable birthday with the people I love :) Here's to many more new adventures!