Third Time's a Charm!

Before I explain my obscure sounding title, I'll talk about this first picture.  Our girls were both invited to one of Olivia's classmate's birthday party/sleepover.  She's one of their "Sewing Club" friends.  I thought it was nice of her to invite both of them.  They really wanted to pack everything days ahead of the sleepover, but I made them wait until Friday after school.  Olivia walked around carrying all of that for an hour before it was time to take them.  They were just a little bit excited.  

Vincent wanted to be in the picture too.

Our kids don't normally sleep at anyone else's house unless we are on vacation or occasionally during the summer with the grandparents or rarely when we have a baby.  This was their first real sleepover.

I dropped them off at dinnertime and they ate dinner there, played, crafted, and played some more.  Olivia went to sleep about 10:30.  Their friend's mom called about 10pm and told me she had a little bit of a hard time at one point but didn't want to call me because she was afraid I'd make her come home.  She cried and then decided she was just hot and hungry, so the mom gave her a snack and she went to sleep.  Elizabeth on the other hand stayed up until 2:30am with one of the other friends who was there.  Oh dear!  Apparently they all woke up at 6:30am too.  That's way earlier than our girls usually wake up.  I don't think they'll be invited again, which is totally understandable and alright with me.  I picked them up just after 9am and the mom was already drinking an energy drink.  I hope she has a nap today!

The girls put their stuff away and then Elizabeth went out to clean up some leaves in our backyard.  Then she came with me on a hike.  Some friends of ours who used to be in our ward said they were hiking at 11:30 today, which is a great, reasonable time to hike for me.  They hiked up Badger Mountain which is a three mile (round trip) hike up steep dirt.

I have lived in our area for a very long time, but this is only the third time I've been on Badger Mountain.

The first time was Labor Day and a friend of mine was turning thirty and wanted to hike there really early in the morning, so we did.  Kind of.  I didn't quite make it all the way to the top.  I was NOT in good shape and I'd been up super late with Vincent (he was 1 1/2), so I was exhausted.

The second time was just last May.  My walking buddy, her visiting best friend, and I went with our combined five kids under four on a windy, chilly day.  We made it about halfway up and then the kids had had it. I was carrying Abby on my back too. 

This time I was in much better shape.

Just to compare, here are the side by side pictures of what I looked like on each hike:

Although I felt better than the first two times, I still had a hard time climbing.  My legs will be sore tomorrow!

Plus, I had to keep up with this cute little energizer bunny!  We were about halfway here, which is where I made it with Vincent and Abby. 

Elizabeth was a good hiking companion.  We met up with our friends when we were nearly at the top.

I wasn't sure if by 11:30 they meant we're going to be there right then and go or if I needed to wait and I didn't have their cell phone number to call them, so we just started and then their two teenagers (who used to be my cub scouts) ran past us so we slowed down a little to wait for their parents and sister.
Here I am with Elizabeth (and some random person) at the TOP of Badger Mountain.

One and a half miles of climbing and then one and a half miles of holding yourself back from rolling down the mountain.
I have friends who run up and down this mountain several times a week and plenty who hike it often, but I'm still pretty proud of myself for making it to the top.
See our pretty area?  We love it here.

On to the rest of the day!  Relaxing until our stake conference adult session.