Sunday, July 26, 2009

Aargh, the Hungry Rock. Part 2

While we technically had use of the waterpark until 3pm and use of the amusement park until 10pm, we only had our hotel room until 11am. The kids and I were at the waterpark for the 9am opening and we swam until 10:30, rushed back to the room for quick showers, changed and were miraculously checked out by 11. The plan was to go back to the state park and eat lunch and hike at least one more trail and then go back to the resort on our way out of town for a picture with a lion cub. As we pulled into the state park Logan loudly grumped about how he sure hoped we wouldn't have to walk all the way back to "That Hungry Rock." I love the kid, but I kind of wanted to smack him. Hard.

So we ate our hot dogs and set off on a (wait for it) 0.4 mile (!) hike to I can't remember the name canyon. We hike down into this canyon and it comes to a dead end. A dead end with an amazing, beautiful waterfall. It's seriously one of the most beautiful places I've ever been, this rocky canyon/waterfall. We're completely in awe and spend several minutes taking in the surroundings. We then begin to head back to the car (I'm forming ideas of coming back for the day BY MYSELF) when I hear Logan's deep little grumpy voice warning other hikers that "You might want to go a different way because this trail's a DEAD END." And then Kaylin's loud, perky "Yeah, but a DEAD END with a beautiful waterfall!" And then Logan's "Yeah, it was awesome, but it was a DEAD END!" AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

On back to the resort for a picture with the lion cub. Obviously, I don't care a hoot about the picture, I want to hold and pet the lion cub! It was all cute and growly at us (in a good, happy way) and I was in love. Kaylin then begged to hold the leopard. Eh, why not? We played with the squirmy leopard for a couple of minutes. We now have three family pictures holding a tiger, lion and leopard cub. Cute, cute, cute. Even Logan could find nothing to complain about :)

We hit the amusement park area one last time. Logan went on a few rides while Kaylin and I blew a few bucks on the candy carnival game. It was part skill crane and part that carnival game where you drop quarters and the moving wall pushes them. If you're skillful and lucky, more quarters (and prizes) drop off the edge. Anyway, instead of coins this game had candy. You scooped candy, dumped it onto two moving ledges and it pushed candy into your bin. Kaylin was quite good at it and we won lots of junk candy and a few cherry Zotz. Yum.

We were all really tired so we headed home ~1pm. We got home in time to rest before heading to Mollie's 2nd birthday party at my parents' house. I can't believe Mollie is two! Anyway, the kids had a great time playing with their cousins. It was a big fun day. Now I get to go back to work :)

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