We are really good parents

On Memorial Day Billy got off work early enough that we figured we could try for a cool hike. There are so many that I always want to do but can't with both the boys so we went for it and thought we'd try for the Cascade saddle, maybe the summit if we could.

Well, it was just the best ever for so much of it! The mountains were divine and Truman was a champ hiker and it was just so fun!

When we got to the meadow where Dad and Billy had their deer hunt camping adventure we stopped for lunch. It was a little chillier up there but we honestly did not even think anything about the weather or the cloudiness cus, like I said, we are really good parents. 

And we're really prideful hikers so once we had our lunch we saw the saddle right up there and decided we couldn't turn back now. Especially since my race course goes over that saddle I really wanted to check it out. So off we went. 

Never mind the cold temperatures, grumpy, tired babies, little drops of rain and hail we started to feel. 

The saddle was so great and cool and I got to check out where my race goes so we were happy! Except for the boys, who were tired and cold! Who cares, we're in the mountains!

Well, I thought at least that I would take the hoodie I had been wearing and put Burton's lower body in it so that his legs would be warm and as I was doing that Billy was looking over my shoulder towards the Cascade summit and was suddenly like, "Whoa, Krista, we gotta go right now! 

If you look in the top right corner of this picture, you can see from whence his sudden urgency came. Only when he said it, those ominous looking storm clouds were already ferociously charging their way towards us at a very frightening rate.  

Oh. my. I looked back at that, swung Burton back onto my back and both of us just started booking it, literally sprinting down the mountain as fast as we could. Of course we could not outrun such a disaster and seconds later we started getting pelted, and I mean pelted, with very painful and cold hail and oh my such thunder, such such thunder and lightning!!! Both the boys started bawling their heads off and we were just running as fast as we could and I was SO SCARED because I have serious horrible memories of being on top of a huge mountain in the middle of a deathly storm and this mountain was not so high and this storm was not so deathly but I had my whole family up there with me so the fear factor was mutliplied by 10,000 and we were all so scared! It was true terror!

It did not help that a) the boys were in light summer hiking clothes b) Truman's "coat" had no hood c) Billy and I were both carrying metal rods on our backs, which contained our children, d) no trees up there f) you can't actually run that fast with such equipment g) we had sacrificed any spare scrap of clothing for the children so we were getting totally demolished and soaking wet h) we were so high up. elevation and mileage wise. 

When we got down out of the real danger zone we stopped to put our spare diapers on the boys' heads, which immediately calmed Burton but truman was just still inconsolable. Poor kid, he only had my baseball hat on and Billy had run so fast down the mountain with him in the pack that his entire chin and cheek had been rubbed raw from the bouncing and was bleeding. It was so sad. 

We were slushing through rain and hail the whole rest of the way down and were so relieved when we finally made it back down the to the van. The boys were incredible troopers but if we had just been better parents they would not have had to experience such trauma. You have not heard thunder until you have heard it atop a very tall mountain. 

Poor kids. At least their really good parents had some spare blankets (and a sock) in the car for them. Happy Memorial Day, boys.