Hiking - AKA: Follow the Ez

Two posts in two days? What is happening??!

It's that old blogger Catch 22 - either we're too busy doing the fun stuff and we've got no time to blog, or we've got time to blog but we haven't done anything worth blogging about. In our case we've been going nonstop ever since Ez's birthday Disney trip in May. Since then we've had two San Francisco trips, a weekend at the lake, a few overnights at my parent's house, plenty of pool trips, a road trip to the beach, and lots of fun activities with my sister while she was here. Whew... But now things have settled down a bit and we're enjoying a few days of rest to do things like put the house in order, sort through a bajillion photos, and put a few (dozen) of them in this here post ;) Thanks for following along on our summer adventures!

Continuing along with my sister's visit, who you can also call: Bianca, Auntie Bianca, Auntie B, Auntie Ianca, and Auntie Anca, we spent two days doing a bit of hiking. We stuck with mild, short hikes, because hiking during a July heatwave is INSANE. Especially with a 40 lb toddler on your back. Feel free to call us crazy because we did it anyway. And thanks mostly to Auntie Anca's amazing photography skills we got quite a few photos that manage to show all of the beauty and none of the heat.

Our first hike was the Consumnes River Preserve, which is ideal for summer because it's completely flat and mostly shaded. Ez surprised me by taking the lead and running off ahead of our group for the entire hike, stopping every once in awhile to tell us "this way guys!" and then sprinting off again. Normally he prefers to stick by our side, and if Joe's around he always asks for shoulder time, but he took his role as leader very seriously and the one time that we all vetoed his path choice (which added an extra mile with absolutely no shade) he stood and sulked for a good ten minutes before he finally rejoined the group.

Our second hike was in Auburn, somewhere we've visited several times this year already, but we hiked a new to us path that looked deceptively flat and wide. We let Ez run ahead and lead the way again, and then suddenly the path got very narrow and rocky with a thirty foot drop to a bed of boulders below. Ez refused to be deterred by the fact that if he fell he would be very hurt (best case scenario) and after giving me several mini heart attacks he finally decided he'd hold my hand after all. Four year olds...

Meanwhile Decky was securely confined to the hiking pack because his natural impulse was to run straight for the cliff's edge and try to dive thirty feet to the rocky river below. Why are kids magnets for any situation that screams death and destruction? Or is it just my kids?

As a reward for everyone making it back mostly unscathed we took a little dip in the river which was the overall highlight for Ez and Declan.