An Unexpected Adventure

It was too gorgeous of a Sunday afternoon to stay cooped up in the house.  After hearing all kinds of moans and groans from the three oldest, the parents drag their reluctant children into the van and start on their way up AF Canyon.  "Let's see if we can find the first signs of fall, everyone," Mom suggests.

After a 20-minute drive, they stop at Tibble Fork and decide to take a "walk" around the lake.  This is something that the Fillmore's had never done.  What a great idea for a nice, leisurely Sunday activity! The trail looks easy from here!

"Let's have a contest to see who can find the brightest red or orange leaf. The winner gets fifty cents."    "Yipee," they all say in their most sarcastic voices.  What do you know, it turns out to be a  competitive little contest.  Landon is the winner.

The parents are feeling old when they see their baby on their teenagers' back. 

They bought this backpack when he was this size. Trippy.

               

After a few minutes, Landon gets a bit tired and Dad takes over the backpack duty. Doesn't he look distinguished in his new glasses?  OK, not possible to look distinguished with a baby on your back. 

But isn't he a cute Daddy?

The family makes it to the other side of the lake and notices that the trail that borders the lake is not accessible to them.  So they try a couple of options and the younger kids have to slide down the mountain in a few places because of the steep slope.  Neither of the trails that they try seem to lead to the lake.  After lots of complaints and cries of terror, they finally make it to the right trail. 

Mom and Dad keep saying, "This is turning out to be quite the adventure, isn't it, guys?"

The highlight of the day is when they make it to the end of the lake, thinking the trail will lead them all the way around to where they started. Nope. There's a stream they they have to cross to get there.  Great.  They are stuck!

But wait! The ingenious mother find a place where the stream is narrow enough to leap over.

"See, guys? Watch this!"

As if she was still in the midst of her glorious high school dance team days,
she gracefully leaps across the stream.

*GLUG*

Oh.  She looks down to find her foot completely swallowed by gushy, cold mud.

OK...maybe not such a good idea after all.
The children and father try their hardest to hold back the laughter.

They take their shoes off and wade across the stream, finding themselves at the end of the lake.

Ahhh...the cold water feels so refreshing.  The squishy mud so  funny between their toes.

"This actually turned out to be fun," each of the children admit after wading through the knee-high water to the other side.

Couldn't have planned it out any better. :)