Nate's First Hike

Well the Sun has finally decided to SHINE and not a moment too soon, I might add! I actually don't mind a rainy day- in fact I love it- but it has been nice to enjoy some warmth again.

This past Saturday just happened to be one of those delightful but rare days in which there was absolutely nothing going on. No yard work planned, nothing to build, no trees for John to hack down....nothing. Combine that fact with the beautiful sunny weather, and we had the makings for a perfect Saturday afternoon.

Of course we could not get started with our "perfect Saturday" until we had enjoyed the customary Saturday morning breakfast. (We make the kids cook breakfast around here.)




Not wanting to miss a moment of our perfectly unscheduled Saturday, we quickly loaded the van with everything we would possibly need, and headed to Waterton for our first official Hike of the year. Coincidentally, this just so happened to be Nate's first Hike EVER. I'll admit, I had high hopes of our most happy and most delightful child of all (sorry kids) LOVING every minute of it. However, we'd barely parked the van at the foot of the trail when Nate started dishing out all this "attitude."

I think he was all mad about being confined in an unfamiliar contraption called a hiking back pack. Or perhaps he didn't like that huge over sized toque that I'd made him wear. Or perhaps it was the fact that little drops of rain were beginning to fall. Whatever it was, our pleasant happy Nate had been replaced with "Mr. Whines a-lot." There were some ominous looking clouds right behind the mountain, and John and I debated a few times whether we really should even start out. However, when I saw how much Nate was NOT enjoying this - I just knew we had to press on.

I mean, if we had buckled and not gone hiking, what would we have taught him? That it's alright to give up when things get tough? (...or uh...rainy?) Would he have learned how to cope with discomfort? Nope- we made that mistake with our first two children, and they started out as pure wimps! I remember how it all came to a head one winter day a few years ago, when we were cross country skiing on the Cameron Road with the in-laws!! Sam and Abby cried and complained the ENTIRE time, and THEY were the ones cuddled up, being pulled along on a SLED. Nobody else's kids were hating life the way mine were, and it was then and there that I vowed that from that moment on, our kids were not going to be flaky little wimps anymore.

Unfortunately, little Nate had to bare the brunt of that decision. So...we started up the mountain.

Actually,the weather held up quite nicely for the first few minutes and the kids kept up and enjoyed the trail just as much as John and I. I think Nate enjoyed the beautiful scenery as well, though he never hesitated to tell us what he thought of being strapped on to Dad's back. Nate's resistance to the hiking backpack only served to strengthen my resolve.

Twenty minutes later- it began to rain. A couple of times Sam would curl up into a little ball to shield himself from the rain. He reminded me of one of his little Bakugon toys, the way he folded up.

Still, we were not going to stop. We'd planned to fish at Crandell lake, and darn it, that is what we were going to do!

Twenty minutes after that and we were all hunkered down under a tree, trying to stay dry. Resolve gone. Ready to turn around and head back down the trail.

It was a little bit deflating to not even reach the lake, and I felt bad that this had become Nate's First Hiking Trip. Hardly the "perfect day" I'd envisioned.


However things quickly turned around when we got back down to the town site. It is there that we celebrated our pathetic stroll by eating at a new restaurant titled, "Wieners of Waterton." Some childhood friends of John's family recently opened up a cute little hot dog shop there, and he'd been wanting to try it out. For me, the "perfect day" literally came in the form of a quarter pound hot dog and a regular size order of sweet potato fries. One bite and life was good again. Who knew that is all that it would take?

After we'd eaten, we headed to the nearby playground with some friends of ours whom we'd met up with. We always enjoy visiting with the Salmons!

We were delighted to see the new splash pad that has been built. Seeing this helped to strengthen my resolve again. Only this time, I resolved simply to spend as many summer days out here as possible.

And how did Nate enjoy the rest of the day? Well, due to an unfortunate event with a sippy cup, and a lack of dry clothes - he spent the rest of the day strapped into his car seat in nothing but a diaper. Only this time, he didn't seem to mind. It's got me worried that he has something against heights.

It's alright though. We'll make a mountain man out of him yet!