Thursday hiking

Thursday morning I knew we needed to get out and do something. It's hard remembering to have fun for me right now. I have a hard time doing things as a family when our whole family isn't here. I cleaned the carpet in the hallway that leads to the bedrooms and then loaded the kids and drove up Big Cottonwood Canyon to go hiking while it dried.

We first went to the Mill B hike that my friend suggested. Thanks Wylie! The kids had fun getting out. Samantha was pretty fascinated with the water so it was hard to get pictures of her.The boys
They are such good pals these days. I hope this lasts!
The girls. Samantha's hat is covering her face a bit and her hand in her mouth (I think she's teething again).
I love this picture, I love watching my kids help each other.
I realized that this is Samantha's first hike where she did walking for a part of it.
Jonathan loves to go hiking.
I think this will become one of my favorite pictures. I love watching my kids help each other without me prompting them to do it.
The beautiful waterfall.
The beautiful waterfall with my beautiful children. They're beautiful even if they are crying and don't want their picture taken.
I'm learning how to take pictures of me too so I can have some with the kids. I wanted one with Samantha's face since I couldn't get her to look at the camera any other way today.
After that hike, we drove the rest of the way up the canyon to Silver Lake at Brighton. It's a nice trail that goes around the lake, part of it has a boardwalk so I actually pushed the double stroller for this one. We stopped and had lunch first at the picnic tables there and then walked around the lake. I think it's 0.7 miles around the lake. It was a beautiful walk and the kids loved the wildlife we saw. I was definitely enjoying the 20 degree cooler temperature at the top of the mountain versus the bottom of the mountain.

As we were almost done, people told us there were moose up ahead. There were actually 2 and the kids loved seeing moose that close. I was grateful they weren't any closer.
Jonathan looking at the moose.

Daniel had a little red area, about the size of a dime I noticed Thursday afternoon after our hikes. He has often swollen on different body parts due to allergic reactions to who knows what so I gave him some Benadryl (a staple now at our house for him). The next morning we got up and his entire left eye was swollen so I gave him more medicine. I took him to the doctor Friday and the doctor believes he has an infection rather than allergies. He got an antibiotic and I was told to keep putting hot compresses on his eye that afternoon. If it gets any worse, I need to take him to the ER so we're keeping a close eye on his eye.

With no water in the house Friday, I was grateful for our water storage that I hadn't gotten rid of yet. I was able to heat it in the microwave and then pour it over the washcloth for his eye. It seems to be doing slightly better today but we'll keep watching it. At least it's not contagious. :)