Sugar Hollow

Ryan had to be gone all morning for some church things, so I was planning on a tough day since we don't go to church until 3:30 in the afternoon and the temperatures have spiked into the high 90's (hot, hot, hot!).

A phone call from a friend changed that, and I ended up taking the kids on a hike near Sugar Hollow Reservoir--about 20 miles from our house. I've been out to that area plenty of times because we have other friends that live out there, but had never gone hiking.

It was a bumpy drive for the last couple of miles, but it made for a short hike. That's important when there are two 2-year-olds along for the trip. We went up above the reservoir where the river pools up into a nice little swimming hole. Andrew spent the entire two hours just throwing rocks in the river, and Mason and Katie and their friends had a great time hunting for tadpoles and building dams. It was so much cooler there, the water was perfect for wading in, and entire trail was alive with swallowtail butterflies. Between that and great friends, it made for a perfect morning.

As much as I would love to live by an amusement park or something like that, I am convinced they have at least as much fun--if not more--playing in a river and chasing butterflies. We're going out with some friends tomorrow night to do a little cook-out, which is a pretty close rival to a river (hot dogs+marshmallows+fire=happiness). One thing we had hoped for when we moved here was that between having the mountains so close, and the beach an easy drive away, we'd get outdoors a lot more. This has been our best summer yet for that.