Brice Creek

As we were supposed to be going to Michele's today, and then that got postponed a night, I felt the need to do something special today - just me and the kiddos. I decided we ought to go for a hike as Brayden was previously very bummed that Michele and I had done that long hike without him. Having worked in a capacity with kids for the City of Eugene as a director/planner of an outdoor excursions weekly camp - I feel like I should have a good idea of great places to take the kids. While this is relatively true - it's still been 10 years since I've accessed those ideas - and distance was an issue in terms of wanting to stay closer to home. We ended up still driving an hour (had I known it was that long, I might have reconsidered) - and we went to Brice Creek.
Perhaps just a half mile up the trail, we came upon this amazing water hole - the very place I remember hanging out with the 15 or so campers when we went before. It was already inhabited by several teenagers and three moms semi-supervising, but things were pretty tame, and since the moms were there - I felt comfortable crashing the party a bit. I'm surprised there weren't more people - it seemed an ideal location for anyone to spend a 95+ degree day....
I think Sydney had the most fun on the whole excursion - she wasn't afraid to get wet - again and again. Unfortunately, the little Jack Russel terrier in the above picture wasn't very fond of other dogs and greeted Sydney with quite a bit of scorn. (The mom told me that he did that because he knew she was on a leash and could get away with it). Smart dog..... He backed off after a while, but did occassionally steal the sticks we threw in the water for Syd to retrieve.
The only drawback with having Syd enjoy the water so much was her need to shake right next to us whenever she got out - this is a great shot of her catching Mikayla.
This is the area right above the swimming hole - gorgeous, huh?
While I'm glad I made the effort to take the kids out, it probably won't go down as our favorite adventure ever. Brayden is very worn out from staying up too late and participating in football camp during the mornings (his attitude is scaring me for what's to come.....!) - and Mikayla was either completely on Brayden's nerves or on the whiny side. It's a bit disheartening when you plan something that you think will make them very happy and it just doesn't work out that way. But, not every activity can be a total winner, and I actually have a feeling that this place will seem a lot neater for them in memory as they did think it was pretty cool. And, you know, as a mom, just making the effort on their behalf felt good to do.