A wild and crazy adventure

This story dissevered it's very own post because it was hilarious and wicked awesome!!

We can't visit my family without going hiking up in the mountains, and my brother had this awesome route he was going to show us. The pictures looked beautiful and we were pretty excited to check it out.

We started en-route with only a minor glitch, Anthony and I forgot our pack with our lunch/water/diapers/and supplies, no worries, we kept going however.  We stopped and looked at Nooksack Falls. It was really pretty.  Two rivers from the mountain converging and created this spectacular view.

 

 

Then we all piled in one car as the road got a little rough further up. Going up the winding bumping road, my brother's kids got a little car sick, but we were still going strong. Nothing was to stop us from getting to the top.

We finally reached our destination, piled out of the car and started the trek up. There were 6 kids and 6 adults. As soon as we got out of the car we got maliciously attacked by crazed mosquitoes. Usually at the trail head it's pretty thick, but the higher you get in elevation it tends to thin out a bit. Guess we should have thought to bring bug spray.

 

So we're all hiking up, swatting the mosquitoes off ourselves and the kids, and trying to get up as fast as possible. We'd been hiking for about 15min. when my brother turns around with his kid in his arms to see how we were all doing. Anthony looks at poor George's face and see's that he had about 30 bites on his face alone and they were all swelling up. Anthony say's "Nate we've got get out of here"

Change of plans. New plan, everybody grab a kid and RUN as fast as you can. With 6 kids and 6 adults we each grabbed a kid, picked them up and ran as fast as we could back down the mountain.
Poor London got dragged along by his Uncle, I could hear him Yelling, "Daniel STOP my side is hurting!" To which Daniel replies, "No! We can't! You'll get eaten alive." and continued to drag him along the way.

Anthony got the keys from my Mom and took off with Miles to unlock the door. What took us about 20 minutes to walk up, took us about 5 min to get down. Running through snow, streams, rocks, and all other obstacles we were just trying to get out of there alive.

It was like a scene from a horror movie, "Attack of the Man Eating Mosquitoes." All of us were yelling and swatting the bugs away, trying not to get bitten anymore and most importantly trying to keep them off the children.  We made it down the trail and one by one, as we each arrived, Anthony would grab the kid, slid the door open, throw the kid in, and then shut it as fast as humanly possible. Over and over again until everybody was in and safe.

We all got in the van and as soon as we caught our breath, we all just lost it and started laughing at the site of it all. I wish we could have gotten this on film, because it was hysterical seeing all of us running for our lives. I'm telling you, when I get to Heaven I'd like to rewind to that day and watch it. We were quite the sight for sore eyes.

We headed back down the road to pick up the other car and try to make new plans. 12 people in a 8 passenger van for a few miles was also a pretty funny site. Nate passed his car sick genes down to his kids and his poor 2 1/2 yr old George who had about 30 mosquito bites all over him looked like he was on the brink of death. So we handed him up to my Mom in the drivers seat so he could stick his head out the window. Why the drivers seat? Well because the passenger window doesn't roll down of course... it was pretty ghetto and just plain awesome! By the time we reached the River, everyone was feeling better and even the kids were laughing and joking about our "Near Death" experience.

Anthony told the kids that who ever had the most mosquito bites would win a bag of skittles. They all quickly started counting :) George won of course.  And when his Mom (who was out of town for a wedding came back said, "George, I heard you got bitten by a lot of Mosquitoes," George replied in the cutest little voice ever, "Ya and I got Skittles!" So I guess he wasn't too traumatized by the whole thing.

We walked down to the river bank and ate lunch in the sand and threw rocks into the river.

 

 "X" marked the spot, the boy's tried to find some treasure but it was burried to deep :)

 

 On the other side of the road there was beautiful waterfall. With no trail to get there, we decided to forge our way on over and try to get to the Waterfall.

The river took a turn right where we were walking and we could go no further due to the steep incline, trees, and rocks. So silly me, I thought that was it, we'd head back. But oh no, Nate say's, "Lets cross it" So Anthony and Nate scouted the area out and tried to find the lowest spot in the river to cross. Success! and the water only went up to their mid thigh.  No problem, except my Mom and I are a good 8inches, or more, shorter then they are. But regardless, I grabbed Miles on my back and walked across.

The water was moving so quickly and the slippery rocks were almost more than I could handle but the only alternative at that point was to fall and, well, that didn't sound like a good idea either. We made it across, shoes and pants soaked, kids safe and dry. It was a success.

We continued up acrossed a few fallen trees along the way and we made it as far as the littlest kids could make it. Nate grabbed his oldest and Anthony grabbed London and the 4 of them continued around the bend and up to the falls.

London said it was the coolest thing ever and he couldn't see very much because it was so misty. But that kid LOVES to hike, so he was all in.

We made it back across the river and loaded up in the cars. By the time we made it to the ranger station to fill up our water bottles everyone but the drivers were asleep. 

When London started school he had to bring 3 things to show and tell.  He brought a Batman toy, a picture of our family, and Bug spray and told his class, "and this is bug spray and I really wished we had some of this when we went hiking at Mount Baker." You and me Both buddy :) Maybe next time we'll remember :)

 We called it a day and headed home to change and head out to the lake to BBQ and canoe. It was really a great day.