Saturday was another busy day at our house. Chris rented an aerator for the lawn and actually did the front and backyard himself! Way to go babe! The girls did their weekly chores of cleaning the bathroom and such and I did some chores inside and outside the house. We were rewarded by some lemonade and cupcakes at our neighbor's lemonade stand (my kids reminded me, once again, that they want to have lemonade stand and "why won't you ever let us do that?" Memo to self: let the kids have a lemonade stand before the heat of the summer sets in!) and after some lunch were ready for another Saturday adventure!
Chris and I have wanted to hike at Santa Rosa Plateau for quite a while. We went to the visitors center during one of our geocaching trips and it was too hot and dry to seem appealing. Plus, the vernal pools were dried up from the Summer heat. So, now that it is Spring and we've had rain we took the trip! It was a perfect day! The weather was warm with a cool breeze and the Spring flowers were out in full bloom.
Perfect day for a 4 mile hike with 4 kids!!! :) One of them had it easy (a nice ride on Chris' back) and Brianna didn't seem to have a problem and was the most enthusiastic of the kids. Courtney got tired, but was quite the trooper and didn't ask to be carried at all. McKayla, however, complained A LOT and we got the complete run down of all her aches and pains! To her credit, she came down with a bit of a fever and cold the next day, so she probably was feeling weak and tired from a cold that was coming on.
Our first stop on our hike was at the tree in the picture above to take a fun photo and let the girls do a bit of climbing.
Our second stop was to the vernal pool. This is a pond of sorts that fills in the Spring and dries up in the Summer. It was much bigger than I expected. There are fairy shrimp that hatch out shortly after they fill up, but they had already died for the year. The eggs lie dormant in the dry bed and hatch when there is water. This vernal pool has species that can't be found anywhere else in the world. The Fairy Shrimp can lay dormant for hundreds of years before water shows up and they hatch.
We did see lots of other little critters including tadpoles and garter snakes swimming in the water. The kids were very excited to see their first snake in the wild! (Rather than at the zoo.)
Our next stop was to snap a photo of, look closely, a rattlesnake! The first one we've seen in the wild! The kids were very freaked out, and I have to admit I was a bit creeped out. Thankfully, it stayed in its spot and we didn't see it crossing the trail like the hikers who passed us did. You'd think that it would have made McKayla keep up with us better, but it didn't.
Our final destination was the adobes. This is the oldest building in Riverside County. The kids had fun climbing up the rocks and checking out the HUGE oak tree which gave us plenty of shade. We enjoyed a rest before heading the two miles, partly uphill, back to the car. The hike back went by fast and was fun as we sang a few rounds of "The Ants Go Marching One By One" along the way. I'm sure the other hikers enjoyed a few laughs at our expense.
Jenna is enjoying a break from the backpack. (Chris is enjoying giving his shoulders and back a break too!)
Courtney loved the flowers and we counted at least 10 different ones along the trail.
We had a great day hiking. We definitely need to do this more often. 4 miles was a bit long for the kids for our first hike in a long time, but they really did a great job. Great scenery, great weather, great company! Courtney asked on the way home if Heavenly Father likes it when we go hiking and I answered, "Definitely! We get to appreciate and enjoy the world he created for us and we get to exercise the bodies he gave us." Gotta love a good hike!
