Hanging Rock and a tooth...

What do those two things have in common? Well they are both hanging and you will be able to see said tooth in all of my sweet daughters pictures. Yep, it is the one dangling off to the side, really loose and with an (gulp) adult one right behind it. How it constantly reminds me how her little one is growing up so fast every time she smiles. Sigh... Bittersweet!

Ok, on to Hanging Rock and hiking because if I linger on how much my sweet daughter is growing up I am gonna cry. One of the first things we wanted to do when we moved up here is go hiking. There are so many fun places to go around our area and better yet, they are free! It is such a great way to spend time with the family, enjoy nature and get a little exercise in there too. Make that a lot of exercise!

Just getting out of the car and exploring our picnic spot was a ton of fun!




The trail up to Hanging Rock was about 1.5 miles each way. The kids did great but the one holding this 18+lb potato sack got the extra workout! And I will let you in on a special secret at how to get your kids to complete a mountian hike later in the blog post.



Luke stopped to feel nature...

Up up we go!

I made sure my hubby got in on the workout.

Funny because we were hiking up and up, my legs were screaming and when we got to this point, I was like, "this is awesome! We made it!" Nope, more stairs and I didn't want to document them with any pictures because I was in denial.

But Kylie was ready to tackle this bad boy of a mountain.

And then when we got up to the top I was speechless. So.worth.the.pain. There is a life lesson in that you know.








Jake enjoyed the view too. What a perfect little addition to our family as he was just as content as could be going up and down the hike. Have I mentioned lately how much we like Jakers?? ;)

After a brief snack (we had to bribe them up there somehow) we were back to the trail. I thought going down would be a bit easier. I was wrong.

Then our salvation came in the form of a dog. He was going up when we were coming down and he was the cutest dog ever. Tongue wagging back and forth from the heat or maybe it was a smile because he wouldn't accept our water. He was on a mission though our kids convinced him in a new one. He soon became the alpha dog leader of our pack! I told you we had a secret! Our kids followed that dog down the mountain and there was not one complaint, not one groan about how much longer, not one. After the hike was over we met with a local ranger and hopefully our dog friend, who was named Buck by our kids, found his family.



The kids were all fired up about walking and they were doing a pretty good job at it so we decided to tackle another smaller trail down to a waterfall. Note to self, NC waterfalls are COLD!






We knew that day was a park clean up day where volunteers could pick up trash along the trails. Our kids had packed plastic bags and gloves for this very reason. They were excited to see what treasures were along the trail.

That was the end of that, but now on to the tooth. And the door. Yes, there is dental floss attached to the tooth on the other side of that door! But the saga continues because Kylie couldn't slam the door herself - nor could we do it. She would close the door and follow it with her head. Yeah, can't pull it that way. At least she will have a great story to tell when she is older.