Vacation Day 3: HIKING...

Saturday arrived and WE got up early and had a great time together before my little guys got off to the races.  In love - that's all I can say...in love.

Off to HIKING in Santa Fe, Bandelier National Monument.

G kept asking "what doing mama" when I would say "Hiking Baby" then he would say "what doing mama" or "huh".  He obviously had no frame of reference for hiking.  However, by the end of this day he was asking to "hiking again" the next day.

It took us approximately an hour, or more, to actually start the hiking process.  Toddlers move at their own pace, sometimes full throttle and sometimes REALLY SLOW.  We played in the dirt, went to the bathroom, debated on taking the back pack, changed diapers, jumped off rocks, took silly pictures - it was all quite comical.

Finally ready to go...

T looks unsure.

G is all ready, doing his silly hip swing run - which I LOVE.  This pace lasted all of about 5 seconds before he got distracted by a rock.

Family of 4 3 - Track was on my back, but got cut out of the pic..poor baby.

So as you can see above, Graham got off to a slow start - to the point that we sent Mike back to get the hiking backpack - GOOD IDEA.

Ladders, stairs, caves...AWESOME.  How cute is this picture...G is screaming "Hey Mama?".  He hiked about 4 miles on foot before he asked to "carry me".

Graham said "Hey Mama?" this day no less than 60 times.  Thankfully Mike and I were both in a great place so it was hilarious and not the least bit frustrating.  Now that is God's grace.

This is G whispering to Mike and I "hey mama? - theres a "pana" bear over there" and "hey mama? - "wook" at that giraffe and "hey mama? - there is lion "ROAR" right over there - be careful" and finally "hey mama? - theres a tickle monster in your pocket".  Hilarious, especially since we did not see one living creature the whole day.  That's a good imagination.  Oh and there definitely was a tickle monster in my pocket.

Backpacking babies - Have I mentioned that I LOVE carrying the boys any way possible.  I still sometimes try to get G to get in the Ergo, but he won't do it...SAD.  Mike and I had to get really close to get all parties in the shot.  Love these guys.

Love this picture.  G was so excited to be in the fire pit deal.

LOVE this picture.  Look at my little guy peeking up in the back.

A random BIG hug for no reason.  Phew...I wasn't sure if Mike was going to recover from the Toddler love fest - this is a great stage.

All and all, this day was amazing.  The kids were great, no one cried or had a break down.  We had no where to be, no celly's to check, no emails to answer.  Just the Hummel 4 conquering some ancient ruins - I actually have no idea what we were exploring I was too busy watching the boys take it all in and have such an incredible time with mom and dad's FULL attention.

We will do more trips like this.  We will find a way to be more "unplugged" and see/ feel the joy of each other and the kids the Lord has so kindly blessed us with.  It was a good great day.

Let's Hear it for Whoever Lived in those Caves