Red Rock Adventures!

Last year we went to Red Rock Canyon for the first time. (click here to read about it!) We had so much fun! We kept saying we were gonna go back. But life got busy. I was barely pregnant with Landon, then he was born, it was WAY too hot in the summer to go out there, school started again, and we just kept talking about going, but never did. So last weekend we FINALLY did! Patrick had been having a really rough few weeks at work, and was desperately needing a day of fun with the fam to get his mind off his stress and work. So we packed a backpack with snacks and water and headed out for a day of family fun.

First stop.... the new McDonald's that just opened by our house for lunch. We had no idea, but they were having a huge grand opening party that day with a radio station there and lots of giveaways and McDonald's characters.

They also had the birdy girl (I can't remember her name) but I didn't get my camera outta the car fast enough to get their picture taken with her.

It was SUPER windy that day, so we were unsure if we should really make the trip out to Red Rock, but we decided to risk it, and it totally paid off. It wasn't anywhere near as windy out there as it was up by our house. We went on the 13 mile scenic drive and made lots of stops to check out the view and let the boys climb on the rocks.

We decided to take a hike up a trail that on our visitors map said that it would lead to a small waterfall. We thought that sounded like a fun and short hike, and it was ranked as an "Easy-Moderate" hike, which we figured would be good for the kids.

So this was our hiking destination. It was just under a mile hike which we thought would be plenty long enough for the kids, all the way back into this mountain area and we should be able to find a waterfall! Cool!

So we started off.....

I must say... the trail DID start off pretty easy. Then it got a little more difficult. Mostly because I was carrying this.....

Landon loved every second of our hike. He was kicking and "talkin" and looking all around at things he has never seen before! It was cute!

Yes, he is SUPER cute, but he makes it very hard to walk across rocky terrain while being strapped to the front of me. I was terrified the whole time that I would trip and fall on him! Thankfully, that never happened!

We had to cross this to make it to the waterfall. Again, it was much more tricky with a little boy strapped to the front of me, but we all made it, and all stayed dry in the process, which I was totally shocked by!

After climbing, ducking, crossing, and balancing, we made it to the waterfall!

It was really cool. It was just a small waterfall (I'm not sure how well you can even see it in the pictures) but the boys thought it was SUPER cool! There were lots of rocks to play on and sand to play in. And they played and climbed for a while and had lots of fun!

After we had played for a while, we decided to start heading back towards the car. On our way back there was a spot that Conner saw a mouse eating an apple core in the bushes. What good eyes that kid has. It was kinda cool to see. As long as the mice aren't in my house, I don't mind them so much! :)

We got back to the parking lot where our car was and saw this sign...

I'm not sure how well you can see it, but it shows the directions for 2 different trails. We failed to see this sign BEFORE our hike, we apparently went on the harder of the 2 trails. We meant to go on the easier one! It really just made Patrick and I laugh at our mad hiking/map reading skills. Even the harder hike wasn't very hard, the boys had no problems at all. I think it was more my paranoia of people falling or tripping that was more the problem. Hey, I'm a mom, what can I say... I worry sometimes!

We had such a fun day! It totally wore the kids out! As we were driving home, I look in the back seat to find this....

...all 3 kids (you just can't see, but Landon was totally out too!) sound asleep.

We came home and made strawberry french toast for dinner, it was a WONDERFUL day!