reeediculoso

this summer was nutty.  since i was taking it easy from the training and the exercising in general and i was busy gaining tons of weight, i took the opportunity to go on some hikes.  and of course i can't hike by myself, so eric and the kids came too.  other than hiking around out in ellensburg, or exploring the trails while eric is racing, we haven't done too much hiking since the big colchuck trip in 2010.

seamus is a crazy hiker, never stopping, never slowing down.  go go go.  sirus on the other hand tends to complain a lot.  he can totally do the hikes and funny how when things get fun he will run up the hill no problem, but he likes to complain.  but he does also appreciate the view.  like when we hiked rattlesnake ledge above - he was in awe of the view.  i think his exact words were "wow, this view is amazing!"  kind of funny.  we also made a bunch of trips up to Poo Poo point to watch the para gliders and made a few trips up west tiger summit.

while i was out of town one weekend, eric took the kids out to leavenworth and they did a pretty epic hike out towards the enchantments.  they started at the snow creek trail head, hiked past nada lake and to the water cannon.  the whole trip for them was about 15 miles with about 5000 ft of elevation.  they were moving for about 5 and 1/2 hrs and took a total of 7 or so hours.  crazy.  those kids are amazing!

so then of course, since the kids were all fit from their extreme hike up that part of the enchantments trail, a week or two later, we decided to hike again, this time starting at the stuart lake trail head.  this is the same route we took in 2010.  can i just say hiking that trail without a pack is SO MUCH EASIER!!  and the kids were amazing!!  granted for them, it was easier too, seeing as on this trip they were 8 & 10 compared to the 4 and 6 they were last time.  amazing what a few years can do!  it also helped that we had loren and amy and kathy and ryan and bob and marty with us.  sirus looooves to hike with amy, so he lead the whole way up so he could be up front with her. 

we had talked about doing the entire 18 mile traverse of the enchantments with loren and amy a few weeks later.  that was the original plan but we wound up having a conflict.  we wouldn't have taken the kids on that.  while i think seamus could probably have done it, i think they need a few more years.  i'm not totally sure i could have done it, but i hope to at some point!

super excited for more hiking next summer!

ages 10 & 8

same spot in 2010, ages 6  & 4

this was Sirus's idea