Father's Day

Yes, I know this is about 10 days late.  As you can see, we've had a lot going on lately!  :)

Ammon loves the outdoors.  I don't like getting dirty, touching bugs, or hiking for miles.  Since we've been married for 5 years, you can see that we've figured out how to compromise.  We go on a few hikes (a mile or two) every now and then, and Emma and I watch Ammon rock climb every now and then.  BUT, I told Ammon that twice a year (on his birthday and on Father's Day), he gets to pick the outdoor activity and Emma and I will do our best to not complain the entire time.

For Father's Day this year, he chose West Fork near Sedona.  It's a very popular hike that is actually pretty hard to get to go on because they only let so many cars into the parking lot.  There is always a long line waiting to come in.  Since this is what he wanted to do, we set our alarms, and took off bright and early so we could get to the hike (20 minutes away) by the time the gate opened (8 am).

As we entered the hike, there was a huge sign telling us what to look out for: poison ivy, poison oak, snakes, bears...oh my!!  After reading all of the warnings on the sign, I took several deep breaths, made Ammon walk first, and held very tight onto Emma's hand.  What does poison ivy and poison oak look like again?  What's that wrestling in the trees?  After a mile, Ammon finally convinced me that he hadn't seen anything poisonous, or seen any signs of crazy animals.  I started to relax about it after that and tried to keep a smile on my face so Ammon wouldn't hate his Father's Day.

Come to find out, West Fork is 6 miles round trip (up and back), although we probably only did 4 or 5.  Still, 4 or 5 miles with a 3-year-old was a little intense!  When we let her walk, we were maybe averaging 1/2 mile an hour.  She would stop to look at every bug, smell every flower, and collect every stick.  We had to bribe her to walk faster by giving her suckers and letting her snack when we got to certain points.  She was such a good sport!  When we got impatient and wanted to move a little faster, we would carry her or put her on Ammon's shoulders.  She didn't really like it, but I was not in the mood to make this event a 12-hour ordeal!  :) 

The hike itself was absolutely beautiful, and not at all hot because it crossed back and forth over a river the whole time.  The only drawback was that it was very sandy the whole time.  Why is it so much harder to walk in sand?  Why does Emma have to bury her shoes into the sand at each step?  While I was stressed about keeping my shoes dry and clean, Ammon would gracefully leap across the rocks with Emma on his shoulders.  I bet every person who passed us was wondering how the two of us ended up together.

Emma loved the bridge you have to cross to get to the trail head.

I love this picture!

Yep, not even to the trail head, and we needed a sucker!  This is what she would do when we told her to smile for the camera.  Recognize the pose from anywhere?

Someone kindly offered to take our picture.  We NEVER have one of the three of us!

There are ruins before the trail head.

I think the rock behind us with the water coming out is called "weeps"?

The man of the weekend! :)

Isn't that so pretty??

Attempting to maneuver over rocks while carrying Emma.

Flowers were everywhere!  Too bad we didn't go in the Fall, though.  I bet the changing leaves would be amazing on this hike!  Maybe we'll have to repeat this in a few months (but only hike a mile or so).

Emma adding rocks to her collection.

Her shoes were brand new going into the hike and came out BLACK!  Luckily, I was able to bleach the laces back, and scrub the shoes.  They look much more presentable!  :)

LOVE my squishy!

Oh, you want me to pose again?  How about this one?

Look how HUGE that tree is??

We didn't let her get wet on the way into the hike because we didn't want her complaining about being wet for 4 more miles.

So beautiful!

Taking a much-needed break! :)

Exploring.

Found a hallowed-out tree she could fit into.

On the way back, it was much warmer, so we let her get soaked!

She LOVED it and didn't want to leave...looks like she'll be an outdoorsy girl after all!

Overall, it was a lot of fun, and I'm really glad we get to do things like this twice a year.  Happy Father's Day, Ammon!  Thanks for being so patient and loving to Emma!

P.S...For those of you who know he's been looking for a backpack.  YES, I finally broke down and let him get one...the most expensive one.  After a mix-up, we're still waiting for it to arrive, but I'm sure you'll be seeing more of it when we post more hiking pics down the road.