Ten (@ Virginia Kendall) on Tuesday

1. Sunday evening we went hiking in the Virginia Kendall Park, part of the Cuyahoga Valley National Park. It's not far from our house, I'd driven by it before in college, but we'd never been. Last week the paper had a picture of the Ice Box Cave there, which inspired my husband's idea for us to go check it out. Because we all know, with this summer's heat wave, the only thing I suggest is going to the pool. I'm so glad he thought of it, because we had a great time. We walked for an hour and 40 minutes. The girls never complained about being tired, they walked and climbed the entire time and never asked to be carried. In fact, they didn't want to leave. Well, not until Mackenzie fell and scraped her knee on the way out, then she was ready to go. But not Emma, she wanted to keep going on more trails. She asked today when we can go hiking again. Looks like we've found a new family activity.

2. This is my favorite shot of the evening. It was right after we started, so we were just heading into the trails. The girls wore their Dora backpacks, complete with water bottles and flashlights. Oh, and Off for me in Mackenzie's.


3. I had a walking partner in Mackenzie, since we're pretty much going at the same speed right now. Unless she runs. Then she can beat me.


3. The Ice Box Cave. Which Mac kept calling a cage. We kept having this conversation:

"When are we going to the cage?"
"It's cave, Mackenzie."
"Cage."
"No, cavvvvve," as I'd sound it out.
"Cabe."
"No! Cavvvvve."
"Cage."
"sigh...We'll be at the cage soon."

It's amazing. You walk up to it and it really feels as though you just opened your freezer. It's cold. And felt so good. It's also dark. Hence the flashlights.



4. There was a not-so-big opening to go back between these huge rocks. While Mackenzie was all about doing everything thing Michael did - the girl was fearless - Emma didn't want to go at first. She did end up changing her mind. I was going to just meet them on the other side...

...but then Michael convinced me to squeeze through here. Good thing I'm not a month further along. I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have made it.

5. Our two little hikers. The girls loved it. They were so in to it.

6. Apparently these stairs were carved by hand in the 1920's. There are a lot of them. I hadn't really gotten tired until I climbed these stairs at the end. Then I had to sit for a minute. There were a lot. And they were steep. Did I mention there was a lot of them?

8. Hi Munchkin.

9. In addition to getting excited by any stairs we encountered (there were also some made out of logs) they liked the bridges.

10. This one, who never wants to pose for me, wanted her picture taken by a "2" post. Unfortunately, I didn't think of this until we'd passed the "2", so we made do with a later-photoshopped "12" post. She didn't know the difference though. She saw the 12 and started yelling "2! There's the 2!"

And with that, I'm going to attempt to get the above-pictured 2 year old to bed. She napped for 3 hours today and now at 11pm, she's playing with the train set. Pretty sure she's not tired yet. Darn.