Hiking the Y

Since we have been in Provo, my kids have been wanting to hike up to the Y. I think probably just because it is there. Everywhere we go they can see the Y. So this morning we got up before 7 and got ready to go hike. We had packed our backpacks the day before with water, granola bars, and crackers. We drove up to the trail head and started on our way. It went pretty well at first. Everyone was excited and happy to be hiking. But before we got to the first turn, I heard things like, "Are we there yet?" and "I'm hungry!" So we had to take breaks at every turn.

I was pretty nervous going up because some of the trails have steep walls going off the sides. And if anyone knows Marissa, then you know that she is prone to accidents. She just doesn't fear stuff. She wants to go backwards off the side of the pool, do flips on the trampoline, and rush into anything that looks fun. If she thinks it, she wants to do it. So, I was rather nervous about her being close to the side with sheer face. I held her hand for probably the first half of the way up. Then I started to feel like I was dragging her. So I stopped. I just walked a little bit in front of both William and Marissa and they just followed me, talking the whole way. In fact, two ladies (who we ran into both on the way up and the way down) commented that they were the most talkative children they had ever met. I laughed and agreed with them as Marissa loudly told the whole trail something about Utah Lake and the slides at Seven Peaks and the number of dogs that we had passed. William was very excited about all the turns. They have signs posted at each turn for a total of eleven before you get to the top. He was kept busy by checking to see what number turn we were on and how long to get to the next turn.
I was going to take a picture of them at every turn, but they got kind of bored of me taking pictures of them. So I waited until there was something else to get in the picture. When we got to turn 10, there was a great view of the Y. This is what William thought of it:


Then we took a picture at the turn sign, which was better.



We had one more turn and then we got up to the top. Marissa and William had decided that they were going to have a picnic on the Y, so Marissa got out her Vienna Sausages and got settled in by a large rock.

I told her that I was not going to climb up there to open them, so she put them away and got out her water bottle. You can't really tell from these pictures, but it is really steep!! I didn't like being up there much because I felt like I was going to fall over the whole time. William and Marissa wanted to climb all over the place, of course, and I just wanted to curl up and lay flat on the ground.


We sat up at the top for a little bit until I couldn't stand it anymore. Then we started to go back down. It wasn't but two minutes or so when Marissa told me she had to go the bathroom. So then we started walking faster down the trail. Luckily William was just fine to go by himself while I held Marissa's hand so that she wasn't falling over the whole time. By the last couple of turns, we were running down to get to the bathroom. Now usually when we are in nature and Marissa has to use the bathroom, I don't hesitate to squat her down in the woods and make her go. But, the trail was so busy that there was no privacy the whole time. I couldn't just let her go in front of bunch of random people. So we just ran and we made it! I was so proud! And no one even fell or got a scratch or anything the whole time.

And we have these nice pictures to show for it:


So overall, it was a great time. I have never been up to the Y before so I was happy to be able to do it finally. I will, however, be very sore tomorrow because of the running. Oh well, it was worth it!