A Family Hike

How many adults does it take to successfully take 5 kids 8 and under hiking? That would be four. Adult duties are split up something like this:

1 adult to wander behind or ahead with the baby

1 adult to walk with the child who is whining/recently injured/sad/left out/on the outs with any of the other kids/causing trouble

1 adult to walk ahead (jog) with the three who are loving it/exploring/climbing/collecting

1 maintenance adult who can carry the backpack, pick up fallen pretzels (leave no trace means very little to our kids), enjoy the scenery, offer assistance to any of the aforementioned adults

Water Break

Little Hikers - Jake (2), Brynn (3) and Tanner (4)

So who was who on this family hiking trip? Well that's the amazing thing - except for Jake who consistently filled his role as baby, the rest of the kids and adults were able to seamlessly move in and out of any and all of the roles.

Our family and the Simpson Family spent a few hours Saturday morning hiking up a couple of great little trails in Chautauqua Park in Boulder, CO. The hike up the mountain was a great, leafy trail and it was an easy walk, but with enough rocks, steps and tree roots to give the kids things to climb over. They had fun pretending to be wolves - my girls started this and their cousins took to the howling like fish take to water. We found several cool rocky spots where the kids could climb and explore. One had this neat hangover, so they all pretended to be bears in their cave.

Bear Cave

Rock Climbing

Tanner

Scary bears (or wolves - can't remember), but I'm sure scared :)

We made it quite a way up the mountain to a lookout with an amazing view of the flatirons. We eventually hooked up to an easier trail and walked down and wide, well packed, and in some spots a paved trail. It was a great way to come down, because it was so fast and the kids were losing their will to hike. We were able to jump, run, chase and have enough fun on the way down to keep them all occupied. Amazingly that trail ended right where we parked the cars! Thank goodness for small favors.

The Flatirons

It was a fun morning and Brynn came home with 1 stick, 1 rock and two pockets full of little pine cones. Good times.

Parker (8) and Grace (7)

Aaron and Jen

Lisa and Chad