Emily’s introduction to the hike started with getting to run along the rim and look out at the view, then she found dirt to play in. We were combined two different trails to make up our hike. We hiked down the portion of the Navajo Loop Trail that goes through Wall Street and back up Queens Garden Trail. The complete length of our variation of the hike was about 3 miles. This was pretty ambitious for us given that we hadn’t hiked this far carrying Emily before. We wished that we could have added a third trail to our hike, but we knew better given what we had to carry and the patience of our children. The beautiful day was such encouragement for doing the hike. It was warm, sunny, and the sky was a gorgeous color against the red rock formations.

Emily was shy at first about talking to the other hikers when they spoke to her. On the whole trip we didn’t see very many other children for her to talk to and play with. She was more than happy to talk to her parents though. Emily has done some riding in the backpack before and settled in pretty quickly. Robby seemed to adjust to a new center of gravity pretty quickly hiking into the canyon.

Once we got to the bottom of the canyon, we allowed her to get out of the backpack and do a little of the hike herself. This definitely slowed the hike down some, but she had a blast. She collected sticks, found more dirt, saw squirrels, ran a bit, learned the arm swinging game with her parents, and got more comfortable talking to the other hikers. She started announcing to the hikers that ‘I hike’. She was very proud! It was pretty funny. She enjoyed the arm swinging game a lot. While it was a bit tiring for us to hike, count, swing, and repeat over and over again, it allowed us to cover some distance pretty quickly with her.

At the beginning of the ascent back out, we put her back in the backpack and picked up the pace. We found a cool tunnel to stop and play in. During the climb out, which was less steep than the hike down, but longer of a hike, we swapped kids. I had the privilege of carrying Emily out. I really felt like the turtle in the turtle and hare story. I just kept hiking slow and steady and we got out of the canyon. Emily was rewarded for being good by getting to run again along the rim edge as we walked back to our car and had a lunch snack.

The first stop of our trip was in Glenwood Springs, Colorado. We met our friends Becky and Sharick for an evening of fun and dinner. We rode the gondola to the top of the mountain for the views of the valley. We haven’t seen Becky and Sharick since our last trip out to Colorado, so we were able to introduce them to the girls.

At the top of the mountain, they had several activities setup as a tourist trap and most were not friendly for our little ones, so we skipped them. Lucky for Emily, they didn’t charge extra for the activity of playing in the gravel. She had quite a collection of little stones and would have filled her pockets if she could have.

We talked the guys into riding a rollercoaster that took you down part of the mountain. The novelty of it was that you had control of your speed by the use of a break. They seemed to enjoy it a lot and were glad that they had gone.

We attempted to attend a Tennessee Smokies ballgame last week to celebrate Father’s Day with Granddaddy. We got to the field between storms and the game never got started. We waited a while for another storm to pass before we made our way out to the car. While we waited we were delighted by a visit from Slugger and Diamond, the mascots. So far Emily has been excited to meet large furry mascots, with parent in tow. She was delighted to meet these two!

Robby is spending quality time with the girls and a book.

Life changes so quickly! Julia is now mobile. One week she mastered rolling over twice in a row, the next she figures out that she can use that trick to get around the room. She isn’t efficient, but she has moved to a toy box and to the toy shelf on her own now by rolling over and over and over until she gets where she is going. You can spot some pretty big smiles while she is going too. Robby pointed out tonight that we need to get her used to playing in a pack-n-play before she knows better.

11 years, 3 homes, 4 cars, 44 states, 2 kids, and one marriage spent together. I wish I had a photo from our honeymoon or wedding to display, but we were married in the pre-digital universe. I just didn’t have time to get one scanned in time to post, so here is a photo of us at the Grand Canyon 3 years into our marriage.

We have enjoyed our time together and it seems like it has been forever. I can only imagine what it is going to feel like in 11 more years. We have been truly blessed by each other. We praise God for the gifts and provisions He has given us in our marriage. We also pray that our marriage will be a blessing to others.