a good idea, gone slightly awry

So yesterday was Sunday and the weather was beautiful and Scott was deathly sick in bed. In an effort to keep the house quiet for him (the extent of my nursing instincts) and also to take advantage of the good weather whilst keeping the sabbath-of-the-cul-de-sac holy (i.e. the neighbors have all decided bike riding is against the rules on Sunday, and while we don't completely agree we like to support the common values and don't want to be the trouble makers - i.e. Scott has already been reprimanded by the 4-year-old neighbor for riding his bike on Sunday), I decided to take the kids for a walk/ride on the Provo River trail up to Bridal Veil Falls. It was a great idea. We'd done it several times before and the boys were totally on board.

The only trouble is, along with all my pop-culture knowledge, apparently I have also stored all my navigational and geographical knowledge in Scott's brain. I realized as we were driving up there I didn't really know where to park. I remembered parking one time for something or other right at the mouth of the canyon near that gas station, so that's where I headed. I don't know why I didn't just think it through a little more, but I didn't. So that's where we started our journey.


The boys were very responsible bike riders. They'd go a comfortable distance ahead and then stop and wait for June and I to catch up with the stroller. They were strong and obeyed the rules of the road. We saw a really old car junk yard in the river (there were about 8 cars completely buried and overgrown - I'd love to know the story behind these!).


But an hour into our journey (all up hill) I realized I'd made a mistake and rather than being right around the corner from the falls, I had in fact parked about 4 miles away. We asked a few people on the trail how much farther and Oliver wanted to press forward while Brenden was ready to turn around. My O.P.D. kicked in big time and I was determined to make it all the way to the falls. I kept saying "we'll just go 10 minutes more then turn around" but how do you turn around at that point when surely we must be close now. We stopped for a break and threw rocks into the river. And then we kept going.


We finally made it to the falls. Oliver was so excited and exclaimed so genuinely "well it was a boring ride up but it's exciting that we finally made it!" We stayed a while and played in the water and miraculously managed to keep shoes and clothes pretty dry. We enjoyed the rest and then finally figured we'd better head back.


I kept telling the boys that it would be all down hill going back so it would be way easier. Trouble is they were nonetheless limited by my walking speed and I was breaking in new flip flops and June had had enough of sitting in the stroller. I realized pretty quickly we'd have trouble making it all 4 miles back before dark. But Christine didn't call me back and Rachel was in Phoenix and Scott was deathly ill in bed. Surely we could make it. I carried June on my hip most of the way pushing the stroller with one hand. Oliver never complained a bit. Brenden was in tears by the end - maybe a little bike-seat-chapped. We drank all our water and ate all our crackers but finally at 8pm we made it back to the car.

I'm afraid the boys will never trust me again when I come up with another "great idea."

p.s. Check out this lady crossing the river in her high heels! Very impressive footwork.