Slowly I am catching up. We hit a bit of a snag this past week with our baby getting her first major illness. She has barely been ill in her entire short life but she debuted with a big one. More on that another time perhaps. For now, I am finally getting around to posting the kindergarten hike photos from about 6 weeks ago.

T's teacher (Mrs. T) did an extra field trip for families that wanted to join. It was not a school supported activity. Anyone wanting to participate had to be accompanied by an adult. My friend KN (again, still working on her screen name) and I thought we would each take our three kids along on the hike. Plus, the rating on the hike was "easy" and the weather had been fairly temperate. 

As I mentioned in a previous posting, that last week of school our household was hit by a bad gastrointestinal virus. I was especially hit hard and felt weak for several days after I was rehydrated and no longer acutely ill. I was going to ask baby's super awesome sitter Ms. B to watch her but KN and Mrs. T said they would carry her. 

So, of course, no battle plan survives contact with the enemy...(not that our kids are our enemies - just a figure of speech.)

It was hot. One of our hottest days of 2014 up to that point.

Mrs. T started off with the baby on her back (see first photo). Baby did not like that because it was nap time - she wanted to be front carried. So we switched her to front carry. That made her much happier and she snoozed until I took over.

KN's youngest decided about 10 steps into the hike she wanted to be carried and KN was not as fortunate as me to have a child carrier. Lil Sister tried inspiring little B to walk along with her and B's big sister L. That only worked about 25% of the time.

Mrs. T and my T were way ahead. KN and the rest of our kids were at the tail end. That was fine with me. I enjoyed the chit chat. About the last 25% of the hike, Mrs. T came down to find us and said she needed to carry some of the other kids the last part of the hike (she is a machine - super fit and strong). I took over and front carried baby the remaining steep portion of the hike. I thought I was going to die. I am usually pretty good at hikes but having lost 5 lbs from illness and still weak, it took everything I had to finish the hike. KN was still carrying B without assistance. She also had a backpack full of Poweraid which came in very handy when we had to stop and help someone having a little heat exhaustion. I was totally prepared with my first aid kit but did not bring anything to help with fluid replacement. 

Another mom also brought a minor first aid kit. A couple of the kids scraped their knees and I provided bandages. T only saw the moms putting the bandages I brought onto the knees. When we got home he was telling his dad how another mom was super prepared with an awesome first aid kit. Hubby looked at me and I looked at T. My response was, "Draw when ready, Son - do you think she was more prepared than your mom?" He smiled and laughed. Then he said, I thought those were our super hero bandages. However, I did not think to bring extra Poweraid like Ms. KN.

I was proud of my kiddos because they did carry their own back packs stocked with water and snacks and they even shared their snacks. We actually hike quite a lot as a family - the big kids and their dad even more than me. I am wanting to get them kid-size camel's backs for future hikes. If you look at the photos closely you will see their flushed faces. Baby (B.B. as we are coming to refer to her) did great.

Eventually, we did make it to the top. We were the last ones up, but we did it. We were up there long enough to eat a popcicle and snap some photos before heading down the trail again. This time, T stayed with us most of the way but we did get separated from the group and had to back track once. The kids were getting weary and I tried entertaining them by telling William and Sweetpea cat stories - bedtime stories with life lessons I've made up for the kids. I eventually ran out of stories and opted for some made up, on the spot ones but those barely sustained us. 

KN (aka Iron Woman or Wonder Woman - I am torn between these two screen names) - carried my baby down the hill but once again, her baby wanted to be carried so she actually carried both kids down the hill. What a woman! (See the last photo.)

We decided we would probably do the hike again with kindergarteners but not with our other kids. Plus, I would not do it again after a week of illness. I would want to have been doing my steady work outs leading up to it. The memories of the day are quite priceless and I will always cherish these photos to go along with the memories. Plus, how many other kindergarten teachers would organize all this without any compensation and carry kids up the trail? Mrs. T is also very much a Wonder Woman, too. So amazing to be surrounded by such incredible women - Mrs. T, KN, Ms. B (more on her in a future posting, too - because it all comes together how we know each other).  And I will end on that note...