Our adventure this week ...

Saturday, October 27:  Last week, Matt had been very disappointed that we didn't get to go out in the woods and do any exploring--I was disappointed too, but I don't go hiking in the RAIN (sissy).

But THIS week, my friend Brenda prayed that the rain would go away at least long enough for the kids and I to have at least a short adventure ... and the drizzle stopped early afternoon. When I picked up the kids, there was no rain whatsoever.

 BUT ... the kids were just waking up when I arrived (and some of them were not yet awake) and so they weren't super excited about this little hike we were about to embark on. I tried to whet their appetite by saying things like if we are able to even GET to the bottom of this valley, we'll likely not be able to get back to the top! How's that for a challenge?!

 I took them over to Crahen Valley Park, where we had never hiked before. It is truly gorgeous there. There are main trails (and looking back on this, it might have been wiser to stick to those trails), but there are also tiny offshoot trails that are far more interesting. We took one of those down down DOWN through thick fallen leaves (and sadly a few hidden thorns), and made the steep and a little precarious descent to the bottom.

 I was hoping to find an unentangled stream at the bottom reflecting the beautiful colors of our day ...

 ... but this was about the extent of the stream at the bottom--at least from where we landed.

 AND at the bottom, the fallen leaves were SO deep, it was difficult to see where it was wise to actually walk ... I didn't want the kids with soakers that far down in this gorge.

 So we decided to return to the top and take one of those fatter, more defined paths ...

 Getting to the top was more difficult than I had bargained for ... 

 We had to take several rests along the way ...

 See how difficult it was?  We were holding on to every possible tree trunk or root (and we found out that some of those ROOTS were actually branches that were not attached to anything at all ... oops ... down, down, down) ... it was slow going for awhile.

 Christopher (below) trying to assess the best way up to the top ... obviously, we had completely left any path whatsoever at this point.

 But we eventually made it up to the top with all of OUR limbs still attached. We had a few bumps and a couple of thorn scratches, but we were fine ... Kaity was a little miffed, but she was still waking up.

 This is a gorgeous place, isn't it? I never knew it was here in Grand Rapids. I'll want to hike here all winter. It will be so beautiful.

 We took one of those wider paths down to the bottom and it wound around and brought us to this "pond" I guess you could call it. It's not very big and Kaity said it smelled terrible. I didn't smell anything at all! It WAS a little green, but that was just leaves and moss and dead stuff ...

 I think we hit our height of COLOR this weekend, at least in Grand Rapids. 

After our "walk", I took the boys back to their house to get ready for the family Halloween party. Kaity came over here to help me eat all the food I had prepared for FOUR kiddos ... I guess I'll freeze the leftovers. It's all OK. I never know what/who I'm going to get on any given Saturday--it's just the way it is. We grandmas just need to be thankful that we can CONNECT with our grand kiddos whenever we can!