I took this picture on Wednesday. I found two fawns resting in our backyard. The two of them filled me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. That's how I woke up feeling on Thursday morning. Excited for our excursion to Mount Bachelor. We skied there in January and in April, and I couldn't wait to see the place sans snow. Hiking there had been number two on my list of what I wanted to do on our vacation week.
Our plan for the day seemed flawless. There would be ten of us. My friends with the ten kids from back home were here so we were taking up two of their boys with us. We'd pack lunches, take two cars and leave at 10:45. We planned to be eating at 11:30 maybe noon if we ran into problems. Plenty of time to hike down before we hit Rose's naptime.
As we drove to Mount B, we hit a roadblock. Literally. Hwy 45 was closed. We backtracked to Hwy 40, an unpaved forest service road. A couple of miles down that, we turned around. No one knew how many miles we'd have to travel so we decided to go back to Sunriver and go through Bend. By then, the two minivans needed gas. By the time we reached Mount B, purchased lift tickets, made a bathroom stop and headed up the lift it was one o'clock. Close to naptime. Uh-oh.
No problem I told myself as I rode the chairlift enjoying the beautiful views. This is a little girl who just rock climbed at Smith Rock. She's hiked four miles. She wanted to keep skiing in a snowstorm on Mount B in April. She walked down from Mount Hood's Miracle Mile chairlift when she was only 2 1/2. She's tough, a trooper. Of course, none of those things had fallen during naptime.
We ate lunch, and the kids wanted to play in snow. We started up the trail leading to the snow. Rose stopped. She started to cry. It was too hard. She kept slipping. I understood her concern. Mt. B is volcanic with lava rock. It's not the easiest hiking especially for a four year old. I asked if she wanted to skip the snow and go back down. She responded with an adamant "yes!"
But when we got back down and she saw the kids playing in the snow, she wanted to go back up. Not up the same trail we'd just come down, but through the rocks. She was starting up herself so I thought why not? The way up was harder than the first one looked, but at least she was excited and not whining. And there was a path I could make out.
Rose negotiated her way over the rocks with little problems because all she could think about was the snow. A couple of times she wanted to hold my hand, but that was it. We reached the snow patch just as the others wanted to head down. They were above us and there was no easy way to reach them to take the same path down.
I let Rose play a few more minutes, and then it was time for us to meet up with the group down below. Big problem. Going up was easy. She did not want to go down. We made it down with me lifting her over the spicy parts, but I could tell she was reaching her breaking point. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get to go on my hike after all.
We met up with the others and started down the mountain. it was fun to hike where we'd skied. But as we stopped to take a picture, the tears started welling up in Rose's eyes. She didn't want to go down. She wanted to go back up and take the chairlift. A couple of minutes of negotiation and candy did no good. She wasn't moving.
So...everyone else descended while Rose and I made the climb back to the mid-mountain lodge. The gang waited at the lift to wave goodbye to us. So much for my Mount Bachelor hike. Rosie was asleep as soon as I started the car. She slept the entire way back to Sunriver. I wrote a little when we arrived back at the house so it wasn't a total loss. Though I must admit I'd have rather been hiking. Still it's part of being a mom. My routine never changes all that much just the scenery. Maybe next year!
I took this picture on Wednesday. I found two fawns resting in our backyard. The two of them filled me with a warm and fuzzy feeling. That's how I woke up feeling on Thursday morning. Excited for our excursion to Mount Bachelor. We skied there in January and in April, and I couldn't wait to see the place sans snow. Hiking there had been number two on my list of what I wanted to do on our vacation week.
Our plan for the day seemed flawless. There would be ten of us. My friends with the ten kids from back home were here so we were taking up two of their boys with us. We'd pack lunches, take two cars and leave at 10:45. We planned to be eating at 11:30 maybe noon if we ran into problems. Plenty of time to hike down before we hit Rose's naptime.
As we drove to Mount B, we hit a roadblock. Literally. Hwy 45 was closed. We backtracked to Hwy 40, an unpaved forest service road. A couple of miles down that, we turned around. No one knew how many miles we'd have to travel so we decided to go back to Sunriver and go through Bend. By then, the two minivans needed gas. By the time we reached Mount B, purchased lift tickets, made a bathroom stop and headed up the lift it was one o'clock. Close to naptime. Uh-oh.
No problem I told myself as I rode the chairlift enjoying the beautiful views. This is a little girl who just rock climbed at Smith Rock. She's hiked four miles. She wanted to keep skiing in a snowstorm on Mount B in April. She walked down from Mount Hood's Miracle Mile chairlift when she was only 2 1/2. She's tough, a trooper. Of course, none of those things had fallen during naptime.
We ate lunch, and the kids wanted to play in snow. We started up the trail leading to the snow. Rose stopped. She started to cry. It was too hard. She kept slipping. I understood her concern. Mt. B is volcanic with lava rock. It's not the easiest hiking especially for a four year old. I asked if she wanted to skip the snow and go back down. She responded with an adamant "yes!"
But when we got back down and she saw the kids playing in the snow, she wanted to go back up. Not up the same trail we'd just come down, but through the rocks. She was starting up herself so I thought why not? The way up was harder than the first one looked, but at least she was excited and not whining. And there was a path I could make out.
Rose negotiated her way over the rocks with little problems because all she could think about was the snow. A couple of times she wanted to hold my hand, but that was it. We reached the snow patch just as the others wanted to head down. They were above us and there was no easy way to reach them to take the same path down. 
I let Rose play a few more minutes, and then it was time for us to meet up with the group down below. Big problem. Going up was easy. She did not want to go down. We made it down with me lifting her over the spicy parts, but I could tell she was reaching her breaking point. I was beginning to wonder if I was going to get to go on my hike after all.
We met up with the others and started down the mountain. it was fun to hike where we'd skied. But as we stopped to take a picture, the tears started welling up in Rose's eyes. She didn't want to go down. She wanted to go back up and take the chairlift. A couple of minutes of negotiation and candy did no good. She wasn't moving. 
So...everyone else descended while Rose and I made the climb back to the mid-mountain lodge. The gang waited at the lift to wave goodbye to us. So much for my Mount Bachelor hike. Rosie was asleep as soon as I started the car. She slept the entire way back to Sunriver. I wrote a little when we arrived back at the house so it wasn't a total loss. Though I must admit I'd have rather been hiking. Still it's part of being a mom. My routine never changes all that much just the scenery. Maybe next year!
