A Whole Day of Adventure

*Sorry - this got kind of long...

I've noticed an interesting thing about having four boys (two of mine, and two nephews who I babysit). The arguing practically stops when I get them outside. This week, Kaleb has no kindergarden thanks to assessments, so I knew we'd need a little something extra. I let Kaleb help me pick out a hike to try from my "favorites" file, "hikes to try," and we planned to go to 5th Water Hot Springs in Spanish Fork Canyon.

Here was the plan:

8:00 - Breakfast

8:30 - On the road to the canyon

10:00 - On the trail

11:30 - At the hot springs - Play/lunch

12:30 - Back on the trail

2:00 - Back in the car (and hopefully naps on the way home)

3:30 - Home

The reality:

8:00 - Me, Alex, and the pancakes up and ready to go. 3 other boys who RARELY sleep past 7:30 and NEVER past 8:00? Snoozing soundly in their bed.

8:30 - I get too impatient to wait any longer and wake up the kids, feed and dress them, and finish getting ready to go.

10:30 - We arrive at the trailhead, but everybody has to go potty. We spend 15 minutes taking turns in the most DISGUSTING public pit toilet I've ever had to walk into. I honestly nearly threw up due to the combination of the smell and the pregnancy.

10:45 - We hit the trail, 45 minutes behind schedule. Adam reminds me that he's scared of rivers. (Seriously what isn't he scared of). He cries loudly for the next 10 minutes about how he's going to fall in the river and he just wants to go home. I finally threaten the scared out of him, and he relaxes. We're having a great time, but Alex is SO slow. And so easily distracted. He stops to pick up sticks and rocks. He stops to run his fingers through the sand. He stops to "bushwhack" the weeds with the stick he picked up. He stops to throw the rocks he picked up into the river. He stops. And stops. And stops. And sometimes he refuses to go again.

12:00 - It's noon, and I'm starting to wonder if we should stop to eat and then just go home. I think Alex agrees with that plan, but the 3 big kids "really want to go to the hot springs." Good attitudes abound, so we trudge onward. I spend most of my time trying to convinve Alex to keep walking.

1:30 - We're still walking, and we're still not there. I'm SO done at this point, as I've carried Alex for the majority of the last half mile. Did I mention that Alex weighs 28 lbs? Did I mention that the backpack carrying our water and lunches and baby wipes and sunscreen and... weighs nearly as much? Did I mention that I'm 20 weeks pregnant and prone to dizziness? I'm SO done. I spot a nice little grove that would make a great picnic spot. There are two women eating there who seemed to have thought so, too. I holler to them, "Excuse me. Hey, did you guys happen to go all the way to the hot springs?" They respond in the affirmative. "Are we anywhere close?" They laugh and kindly inform me that we'll be there in about five minutes.

1:45 - 15 minutes later, we've made the last 5 minutes of our journey and arrive at the hot springs. It is nearly 2. We've had no lunch. We have no cell service. We still have 2.5 miles left to hike back to the truck. We're obviously not making it home by DINNER, let alone by the planned 3:30. Oh well. We made it to the hot springs, and we're going ot have fun!

2:30 - We're mostly dry, full of lunchables, and ready to start back. Even Alex is doing his share of the walking. The kids keep falling because downhill is hard! We turn it into a game. "Wow! That is such an awesome scrape! We'll have to show it to Daddy as soon as we get home, and he'll know we really had an adventure!" Alex walks until he simply can't walk another step; I carry Alex until I simply can't carry him for another step; Alex walks again; I carry him again. The length of time Alex is able to walk gets shorter and shorter each time. I probably carry him 1.5 miles of the way back. Thankfully we've eaten our lunch and consumed most of our liquid so the backpack I'm carrying is not as heavy.

4:30 - We come around the bend, and there it is: the parking lot. Heavenly sight. But everyone has to go potty, so we're back to the disgusting pit toilet. I choose to just hold it and stay far away from the smell.

6:00 - We arrive at home, tired and dirty. We all take baths before sitting down to the yummy dinner Aunt Heather cooked for us. It probably tasted even better at dinner time. Too bad we missed that.

7:30 - I stand up after having sat still for awhile. Okay, maybe the hike didn't seem that bad while I was on it, but I hurt EVERYWHERE. My hips are killing me. My feet never want to bear up my weight again. My shoulders are literally bruised from the weight of the backpack. But the kids are still happily chatting about what a good time they had. And I had a great time too. No, I probably wouldn't do it again. But no, I probably wouldn't take back yesterday either.