"The smallest hiker"

Daddy and Kayden posing

The treasures Kayden gave me

Smelling the flowers


RUNNING b/c he was so excited to go hiking!

On Friday daddy had the day off for the 4th of July weekend. We needed a break from the heat so we decided to take a day trip to Flagstaff and left by 7am. Once we got to Flag we headed up to the mountain to start hiking, as soon as you got out of the car and realized how nice it was outside (around 65 degrees!) you started running and "doing the Kayden". You pretty much ran our whole 2 hour hike! Everyone that passed us was amazed by your energy and several ppl said that you were "the smallest hiker" they'd seen. I have to say that I was very amazed at how long you lasted and how well you did, I actually still thought you were at the carrying stage still and that we'd need to get a Kelty carrier to go on hikes, and I'm sure we would if we wanted to go on super long ones. But the fact that your little legs could carry you for 2 hours straight was suprising for sure! You fell a few times b/c of the "tricky roots" as you called them but for the most part you did great. You loved finding logs that you could use as balance beams and investigating the bugs, moss, and plants was super exciting for you. You picked me several flowers and gave them to me, I love when you do that! On the way back when we had about 10 minutes left of hiking you asked daddy to hold you and fell asleep! I guess your 2 hour hike wore you out and you could fall asleep anywhere. We woke you up though to have our picnic lunch and then let you sleep in your carseat for about an hour. After our hike we went and looked at some buildings on NAU's campus that daddy had done for work, stopped at Art in the Park and walked around, walked over the train station and saw 2 trains go by (this was super fun for you! as they were going by you did your "choo choo" and pumped your arm over and over for the whole length of the train!) and then went to Barnes and Noble and let you play with the train table (b/c it started to rain so we needed an indoor spot for a bit that you could play before we drove back to PHX), had dinner and then headed back to Chandler. We timed it so you would sleep on the way home which was nice:)
You are a little hiker and I love taking you to discover the outdoors, you make mommy and daddy see things a different way...even the "big, black ants".