I will make them hate this.

In July we go away as part of a 'mother not losing her mind due to oppressive heat'. We've just returned to a weeks forecast of monsoon storms. . . .somebody's righteous living is finally paying off.

Together with Aunt VV, Ruffy and Chika (the dogs) we took this crew for a family friendly two hour hike. Two qualities I love about Aunt VV: is she is up for anything, and she has a ridiculous level of confidence in those she loves.

We decided to tackled Adams Canyon hike to the waterfall on a Wednesday afternoon. The hike started out rough; there were about a forty minutes of switchbacks under the full sun at a pretty steep incline. We.were.not.deterred.

We tried to make it enjoyable. Stopping and cooling our feet in a stream under some shade.  While eating some apples VV noticed a ton of bees surrounding us. Hastily we got our shoes back on and continued our journey up up up. Minutes turned into hours and our water supply was dwindling.

Three hours in we were out of water. Upon seeing other hikers returning we'd ask "how much farther to the waterfall?" Some were more encouraging than others, all offered praise for doing such a challenging hike with a baby and three little ones. We were spent. Totally exhausted and everyone was getting desperate for water. Looking down at the clock we gave ourselves fifteen more minutes to reach our goal, even if we didn't make it we'd have to turn back.

We raced off with new vigor, determined to not give up. We covered quite a bit of ground and I was so impressed with Owen, Luke and Lily. They dug deep and we pushed on. Twenty minutes we reached a point where it was so steep that we were basically crawling up the mountain, with Jack on my back I knew it was time to stop.

I hated quitting. I sat down on the trail with Luke and Lily, Vicky and Owen scouted out a few minutes up the mountain to see if we were closing in on our goal. I sat there hoping we were. They returned with the news that we were another thirty minutes away and it only got steeper and less of a trail and more gigantic boulders.

Quittin time.

As we walked down the trail I knew it was the right call. We had given it everything but come up short.  Which, in life is okay. Win some, you lose some. Four hours and fifteen minutes and we never saw the waterfall.

On the way down we chatted about when we finally got some water how we were going to drink it, what size glass we would use, whether we'd wait and get cold filtered water or guzzle it from the hose next to the front door.

It was a trying, difficult experience but I was such a proud mama of how tough my little ones were; mentally and physically. They pushed themselves, and that was better to see than any waterfall.