A Weekend in the Mountains

We recently took a trip to the mountains with our friends Carrie, Jeremy, and Colton. (Colton's little sister Caroline stayed home with her grandparents.) Carrie's parents have a vacation house there and were kind enough to let us all invade for the weekend. We had a great time. The weather was perfect (70s during the day and 50s at night) and the kids had so much fun!

Colton's grandparents had made a little hiking trail in the backyard. They had a blast going on it by themselves....we could hear/see them the entire way through the trail. Four year olds are never very quiet...no matter how quiet they think they are!

Best buddies on our big hike down the Cascades waterfall.

They were so proud of themselves for doing the whole trail! They did receive lots of reminders from Carrie and me about safety, so on the way back up, they stopped every few minutes to give us a "tip". For example (one that was given many, many times by Laura)..."Tip #42: Watch where you are going! You might slip on the rocks!" Colton's favorite..."Tip #41: Stay out of the green stuff. It might be poison 'iby'!"

A huge slide at the local park. They thought it was great fun to lay down and go as fast as they could. This is a big change from not that long ago when Laura wouldn't even go down the slide in our backyard!

Nothing tastes better after a long day of playing and hiking than a huge lollipop! By the time she finished it, Laura had it all over her face, neck, and shirt!

Roasting marshmallows was lots of fun. They kids liked eating them straight out of the bag better (and I agree with that decision), but there is always something nice about a fire.

Our happy little family by the fire.

Shawn, Laura, Jeremy, and Colton went on a short canoe ride. Laura liked it, but Shawn said her favorite part was collecting leaves from the water. Fortunately, no one fell in...the water was cold!

We spent all day Saturday at Tweetsie Railroad...a little amusement park. Most of the rides were geared for kids, but they let adults on some of them. Laura felt like a big girl driving the car.

Good friends flying the airplane.

Panning for gold:) Laura thought playing in the sand and water was way more fun than looking for gold!

None of the adults like the rides that went in circles, so I had the fun of taking the kids on the bigger rides...we went on the Tilt-a-Whirl and the Scrambler. They loved both of them and I had so much fun watching their excitement!

We had a great weekend...and Laura is already asking when we can go back!