Yesterday's run (8-9-07) 2.6 miles

I haven't been on here for a new entry for quite a while! We have been busy, and though we have been having a lot of fun, I am excited things are slowing down a bit.

I went to see Raelinn's play. She was fabulous!! I really hope she continues to try out for plays because she really seems to enjoy it, and she did such a great job!

We also made our 2nd annual trip to Backbone. This year we decided it would be easier on all of us if we rented a cabin. We rented one of the older cabins they have - and it reminded me of camp as a child and family reunions in Indiana. The "cabin aroma" definitely triggered the smell sensory node in my brain and helped the memories along. I don't know what it is about older cabins, but they smell like....well, like cabins. This is not a bad thing by any means. It's more of an old wood, wet sandy kid kind of smell and I love it.

We hiked the backbone trail this year - and wow, what an adventure. Once I realized how extremely high up we were and that the drop off was on both sides, I realized, duh this is the backbone of backbone - hence the title "Backbone Trail". I was a little mother henish asking the kids not to run or jump or skip or peer over the edge while please, just please staying in a single file line. However, not to let my fear over power my absolute coolness, I did let them climb up and down and into a few things that were probably against my better judgement. Of course the kids (Raelinn and Gage) were probably a lot less frightened than I was and I really wanted them to experience something they probably wouldn't have a chance to again for a while.

We did quite a bit of exploring in the stream. It's extremely cold water (until you numb up a bit) but it is so beautiful and you never know what you may see around each bend. In our case, we saw an abundance of beautiful wild flowers, hawks, shells, trees, rocks, lots of animal tracks and a dead beaver. The beaver was definitely the highlight for some of us. I'm sure you can guess who!

Raelinn made her 2nd annual spelunk to the farthest point back in backbone cave that an adult could squeeze in to. This year I actually joined her! It was awesome. A little squat walking, some crawling, and then you get to stand for a few feet before you squat walk and crawl the rest of the way back. Then we came to the hole that she of course begged me to let her shimmy though. I being the sane one in this case, had to tell her no, that she could continue on once she was older or convinced her mom to take the trip in the cave with her next year. Once again not to let my fear get in the way of my super coolness, I let her hang the front most part of herself through the hole while holding a flashlight and I holding her legs so she could at least see what treasure or adventure she had to look forward to treating herself to - when she was older.

They may have heard that phrase quite a bit on our hike also. I am a mom first after all! And we all want to find the even divide between letting our children (or niece) be adventurous and being safe. We did go back to the cave a second time and this time Gage joined us - and we saw bats! I couldn't believe it. Very cool I must say.

Ella has changed so much this year from the last time we were there. She actually wasn't afraid to get into the water and swim/splash around, and she is so much more aware of everything around her when we are hiking. I hope they continue to love nature as much as I do.

Gage, Wade and Rae did fish a bit but didn't have much luck. I think the kids may need a little more patience yet and Wade was a tad busy with untangling lines and putting hooks back on.

We also rented a flat bottom boat and rowed around the lake. The kids were extremely hot and wanted to take off their life vests so I decided to see how deep the lake was. I put my oar in and lo and behold - about three feet deep. The bottom was a little mushy and backbone lake has not been known to be that clean for quite sometime or I would have let them walk across it.

I also have to mention that we befriended a little pregnant cat that lived under a cabin while we were there. She actually had her kittens before we left! Our wonderful cabin neighbors decided to take all three of them home to CO with them! We also had the pleasure to enjoy them playing their guitars and singing around the camp fire. You just can't beat that!

The time spent with family cannot be measured and it is never long enough. This is one place I don't know that we will grow tired of in the near future. Every where you go in the park is simply breathtaking if you can take a long enough breath to stop and enjoy.

I have so many more pictures but I guess I can't publish them all. Take a peek in the Picasa web album every now and again and when I have time I will get more pictures on there.

Family reunion there anyone? 2008?

I'm off for now - Take Care!!

PS - I started running again - yipee!

last week I ran Thurs-2m, Fri 2m, and Saturday 4m!

This week so far has been Mon-3m, Tues 2M, Today (Wed) 2.6M

I need to keep it up!!!