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| PC: Melissa Swan |
We celebrated our Sabbath by surrounding ourselves with nature. God's creation's are incredible. And since it's the off-season, we had the woods pretty much to ourselves.
The first hike we went on was the Stout Grove hike in the Jedediah Smith Redwoods State Park. It was an easy hike, and had lots of giant trees to look at and climb on. The kids were in heaven, and we took it pretty slowly so they could climb and explore.
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| PC: Melissa Swan |
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| PC: Melissa Swan |
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| PC: Melissa Swan |
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| PC: Melissa Swan |
After Stout Grove, the more adventurous of the party went on a drive up Howland Hill Road. It was a beautiful, twisty, bumpy drive. We weren't the lead car, so I'm not sure what the name of the place was that we stopped to hike the second trail, but it was an awesome trail!
The trees were so thick you could hardly see the sky when you looked up. And the trail wound around enough, that even though there were a lot of us, we were pretty spread out, and sometimes you could turn a corner and feel like you were all alone in the world with only the trees for company. It was beautiful. And it was the kind of place where it felt like a dinosaur might jump out at you at any moment.
Ivan and his older cousin Spencer were great hiking buddies. Actually, they remind me a lot of each other. They aren't very chatty, but they don't need to be. They can go along together quietly and point out the cool things, and be content to just do their thing.
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| PC: Melissa Swan |
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| PC: Melissa Swan |
Lincoln was hiking with his cousins Zac and Jeremiah. They were running up ahead of the rest of the group. When some of us (Adelia) got to the point where we wanted to turn around, we couldn't spot the boys up ahead. Aaron took Del and Ollie back to the car. I ran ahead, thinking I'd see everyone just up ahead. I found Lisa and Jared and Carter, Spencer, and Ivan, but they said the other boys were still further up ahead with Ryan and Melissa. Lisa sent Carter and Spencer up ahead thinking they'd catch up with the others pretty quick to tell them we were all heading back. We walked along the trail for a while, but never saw Carter and Spencer, or the others waiting. Lisa and Jared decided to go ahead of Ivan and I (they could go a lot faster), and see what they could find. Ivan and I kept chugging along. Ivan was getting tired and wanted to go back, but I didn't feel like I could just turn around and leave Lincoln and Zac (who had ridden in our car), so we kept going. And going, and going. Finally we ran into Carter, Spencer, Lincoln, and Zac headed back in our direction. They said that Ryan, Melissa, Lisa, and Jared were having trouble convincing Jeremiah to stop and turn around. He wanted to keep running ahead, and they were trying to catch him.
The six of us turned around to head back to the car, and pretty soon picked up Audrey and Aneya, who were behind us, and turned them around with us. After a mile or so, Ryan and Melissa caught up to us. They said Lisa and Jared had caught Jeremiah and were bringing him back. That was good. Needless to say, we were all pretty tired when we got back to the cars. But I'm glad we did the hike. And I'm glad I wasn't the one who had to haul Jeremiah out over my shoulder.
Back at the cabins, we had a pot-luck dinner, and family devotional in the game room. Each sibling in Aaron's family took turns sharing a spiritual thought. And we all brought delicious food. The cousins played fussball and ping-pong, and the adults chatted until bedtime. It was a happy end to a great Sunday, and everyone enjoyed themselves.
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