Mountain Trip Day 1

As the summer was approaching the end I was starting to feel a little sad that we hadn't taken a family vacation this summer.  I know the girls had enjoyed their summer with Amy going to the pool practically every day she came, but I still wanted to have a trip before school started.  Emma had made a comment a few weeks ago when she saw a picture of her cousins Jayla and Aubree in front of a waterfall (it was actually just a green screen but she thought it was real).  So she said at dinner one night that she really wanted to see a waterfall.  Scott and I were both a little surprised that they had never seen a waterfall but the more we thought about it we couldn't think of a time where they would have seen one.  So we decided to take the girls to the mountains for a long weekend of waterfalls and mountain fun.

We left on a Thursday morning and went to Dupont Forest to do some hiking and see a few waterfalls.  I am 30 weeks pregnant so we did get some strange looks (I feel like I look closer to 36 weeks) and one lady asked Scott if he was trying to make me go into labor.  The first waterfall was very easy to access and only about 1/4 of a mile hike.  It was very long but not very tall, Emma said it wasn't as big as she thought it would be.

We had packed lunch before leaving home so we ate our lunch on some rocks at this waterfall which was called Hooker Falls.  The girls put their hands in and lots of kids were swimming but it was so cold.  We told them they could swim after we saw the other falls.


The next set of falls was called Triple Falls and was much taller than Hooker Falls.  The hike was about 1/2 a mile but was very steep so I had to take several breaks.  My body was doing ok but my lungs are pretty squished.  The girls really liked this set of falls because there were 3 of them so they each said one was theirs.  Emma had the top one but she didn't think it looked as big as the others, though we kept telling her it was just further away and really not smaller maybe bigger than the others.  We spent some time on the rocks here but one time Emma gave me a scare when she started walking off by herself toward one of the falls.  She got closer than I wanted before I could get her to hear me over the roar of the water.  We had to talk about staying close together (again).

When we got back from seeing the Triple Falls Scott went to the car to get their towels and shoes and the girls and I headed to the first waterfall so they could swim.  Before we got very far though it started to sprinkle and we had seen the dark clouds rolling in but thought we had more time.  The girls did not want to swim in the rain so we decided to go check-in to our hotel and maybe swim in the pool there.

I checked us into the hotel and we took all our bags up.  Emma's first question was where is my bed. I had booked 2 queen beds and not a suite or condo like we normally stay in for the beach.  I guess we have spoiled her and she was not impressed.  Her second question was where is the kitchen?  Then Olivia came up with her things and said where is my room?  Poor girls have to all share one room with mom and dad.  It rained and stormed for several hours after we checked in so the girls watched a movie and Scott and I had a nap.  We then went out for Mexican at a local place and afterwards the girls swam in the pool for over an hour.  They played with some boys that were a few years older who had water guns and so they took out their water guns and challenged them to a fight, it was funny Emma actually started the whole thing.