Virgin Creek Falls and Friday Fun

On Friday my Mom and I took the kids on an adventure to Girdwood.  I'm not usually much of one for spontaneity, but I am trying to reform.  In as much as you can plan to be spontaneous, that is.  :)

The day started off beautifully:

Such a pretty angel baby face to wake up next to.  We started our day with some history.  Because school marches on.  Lucky kids, right?   After that we informed the kids that we were going to be spontaneous, at which point we learned that their vocabulary, sadly enough, does not include the word spontaneous.  Their guesses centered around the definition for synchronized instead.  Hmmm.... nonetheless, we decided to move forward with our plans instead of staying home to double up on vocab study.  :)

It took us 45 minutes to get out the door.  We'll have to work on that!  45 minutes later we were at the bakery in Girdwood selecting a variety of goodies.  We weren't super impressed with the bakery - but if that's the worst we can say of the adventure I'll call it a win!  We stopped at the Girdwood playground.  The kids loved the tire swing!

Next up was our hike (.2 miles to Virgin Creek Falls, nothing too crazy - I'm not really a hiker!).   Cute bunch:

Grandma told the kids they could bring what they wanted as long as they carried it.  Thus the sparkly shoulder bag Viva had.  :)  I like that they took the butterfly net.  You never do know when you'll need it, right?! (Grandma Julia: Viva brought it to catch some fish. She caught a rock!)

If you look closely you can see Evan was leading the pack up the trail.  He thinks he is in charge.

 

Not too far up the trail Lincoln found himself a branch gun.  Boys will be boys.  :)  Evan found himself a rock three times as big as his fist to carry, but we told him he had to leave it behind.... !

Later on up the trail Lincoln and Evan were banished to a log while the older three ventured down the side of the path to stick their feet in the river.  The trail was a bit too steep for little people.

An artsy shot....

The falls aren't huge, but they are quite picturesqe.

My Bentley-bug on the trail:

 It was a gorgeous day to be out.  Temps in the 70s, no bugs, and the trail to ourselves!  The kids wanted to keep going further up the trail - I told them to take their Dad back with them and do that.

We stopped at the playground again on the way home (thanks to Grandma's spirit of adventure, not mine!!!), and then we stopped to check out some surfers riding the bore tide on Turnagain Arm - pretty cool.

Back at the ranch.... Evan impressed me with his two bowls of food at once:

Viva decided to do art with Evan and Lincoln before heading out to party with Grandma Vicki:

Jake went to ukulele with Opa even though he was a bit tired from our day. Bentley was at karate finishing up his brown belt testing! (You'd never guess the two year old chooses his own clothes, would you?)

Aaaaaaand - it's a wrap!

Almost.  We finished the day off with Star Trek the Next Generatioin, popcorn, and a campout in the tent we set up in the family room.