Change of Plans

Last weekend our church planned a camping trip to Fall Creek Falls, including the church service there that morning.

The weather forecast called for rain so we chose to just drive up that morning. But someone forgot to set the alarm and we didn't wake up in time to make the drive down. So we re-figured and decided to have a family day.

When I'd had the kids pick out their clothes the day before, they chose to wear their Thailand shirts.

Caitlin just happened to be wearing a hat that my friend sent from Thailand several years ago. It doesn't really fit anymore, but she wore it all morning.

 

After breakfast and the impromptu photo shoot we headed to Burgess Falls. It's much closer and we hadn't been since last fall.

 We stopped at the playground for a few minutes.

 

 I'm thankful my kids don't mind the camera in their face all of the time.

 Dominic flopped down on his stomach and Caitlin followed. Baby girl copies everything her brother does - much to his despair at times.

 

 I have NO idea what she's doing.

 Caitlin found this tiny snail. He wasn't the least bit afraid of me.

 The kids are super curious and checked out everything.

It was a bit disappointing at first that we missed the church camp-out. But the day went so well. It was nice to see the kids noticing nature and to spend some quality time with each other. It ended up being a blessing in disguise.

Burgess Falls

On Saturday afternoon we headed to Burgess Falls. When we first moved here we went down there, but were not very well equipped for hiking. Somehow I had gotten the impression that you walked to an overlook and could see the falls. But there is an approx mile hike to the very bottom of the falls. So when we went the first time we were wearing flip flops and had forgotten water and bug spray. I kept slipping and so was Dominic. The trail goes straight down on the one side and would be a deadly fall to the river below. It made me pretty nervous to have Dominic jumping around on the trail filled with roots. He's not great at paying attention.

So I told him that I wanted him to hold my hand so I wouldn't slip and fall into the river. He held on tight. We walked to the first two sets of falls and then returned to the car with plans to come back later when better prepared.

When we started down the trail Dominic ran over and grabbed my hand. He said he didn't want me to fall in the river. He kept holding my hand the entire walk. He was very insistent that he keep me from falling even when the trail was flat on both sides. It was so precious.

At the beginning of the trail. 

My precious little man.

The first falls or small falls.

The old bridge for the flume.

Grammy and Dominic standing in front of the bridge.

Caitlin had a very easy hike. She was so excited to go on a hike and "talked" about it the whole way there.

The middle falls.

The observation deck for the high falls.

View from deck.

We hadn't intended to hike to the bottom, but the falls were so beautiful we couldn't help ourselves.

At the top of the falls. The sun had gone behind the some clouds a bit.

The walk down.

 

Dominic wanted to take a picture of me. I thought he did pretty well.

Navigating the rocks at the bottom.

 

 

The water created a beautiful rainbow.

 

Walking back on the road with Grammy and Gramps