Not Bad for Plan B!

"It sure is nice to have a weekend," said Ellis this past Sunday. That was the phrase of the day, in my opinion. 

On Sunday, Ellis was so excited about us playing ultimate frisbee with some "locals" at the old middle school in town. We loaded all of the kids up in the van and arrived at the field just after 3pm...to an empty field. Nope, nobody there. Ellis was so disappointed, while I was (not so secretly) rejoicing. Sorry, I pretend to like that sport because mostly everyone I care about thinks it is awesome, but really I haven't had the best experiences with it recently. 

Anyway, now we had to answer the question, "What do we do now?" Well, we've got snacks and the kids are already loaded up...how about a hike? 

Seriously, how many people have a beautiful national park as their "backup plan?" We remarked about how blessed we were and made the 5-minute commute up to the mountain tops. We had a little picnic and played around at the visitor's center before starting our hike. Davey was loving the outdoors. 

Mac and Corrie were off and running toward a big group of rocks to climb and jump on. Mac was in heaven.

Before we left, I had asked Ellis to get Mac and Corrie ready while I got Davey ready. After we were all packed up in the car, I looked back and was surprised to see that Corrie was wearing a pair of size 3-month boy's pants. "What in the world?!!" Ellis had gotten the kids' dressers mixed up and thought those pants were "capris" for Corrie. He believes that he has stumbled upon "the best way to re-use clothes ever." You be the judge:

Once we were ready to hike, Corrie climbed in the backpack to assume her perch on daddy's back. She was so happy sitting up there with her little yellow toy snake in-hand.

We found a new trail and enjoyed our little "jaunt" very much. Mac was especially sensitive to the trees that day. He claimed that this tree was "cross" at him (angry) because of the "eyes" and mouth he saw on it. He took his transformer robot and hooked the tree's mouth.

A short while later, we came upon this tree, which perplexed Mac. It had some kind of fungus growing on it that looked like facial features. 

Toward the end, Mac was really worn out and sore from running and tripping and falling. His energy perked up though, when he saw some flowers he could pick for Corrie. She loved them.

A very nice couple took a picture for us with the view from our hike in the background. It was such a beautiful day with unbelievable weather! I love how Corrie is showing off her flowers :)

We piled back into the van and headed for home. As we coasted down the mountain back into town, I couldn't help but think, "not too shabby for plan B!"

*Side note: A few days later, Ellis got the kids ready to take them to the playground while I ran a quick errand. I got home just as everyone was loaded up, and we walked together down to the park. When we arrived and let the kids get out of the stroller, I was shocked to see Corrie's outfit this time: she was wearing (quite happily) an infant boy's t-shirt. Ellis hadn't even realized he had dressed her in Davey's clothes again. I had to laugh.