It's pretty much Tradition now...

For WEEKS Matt has been itching to get back up to Vogel to hike to the lookout point of Blood Mountain.  We did it several (maybe two?) years  ago and Matt remembers it fondly.  (I remember it realistically...four kids.  One dog.  Six miles of climbing a mountain...the last mile of which was filled with panic over whether we would ever see a familiar landmark again.  I think I actually started to wonder if we could make a meal of Chassie.  Don't tell her.  Matt's recollection of the trip is slightly more rose colored)  However!  Matt starts getting all twitchy and wild-eyed if we don't get him into the great outdoors often enough, so we piled into the car and headed north.  This time the kids were older and the dog was too old (and probably knew what I was thinking the last time) to go, so we let her stay home to guard the house.   I was cautiously optimistic that this trip was going to really be a great hiking experience (not to mention that this time I packed enough granola bars and breadcrumbs to ensure that we made it back off the trail and into the car in good time.)

The trip WAS good.  It was a family retreat and we all enjoyed the time together.  And there was SNOW!!  Lots of snow!  In early November!  It was a little chilly but for the most part the temperature was mild enough...and we got many  pictures thanks to Matt...who played the part of camera engineer (when he wasn't the Ben taxi-more on that in a minute.)  We brought along one of those spider tripods (the kind you can wrap around a tree limb) and we actually managed to get a few pictures with ALL of us in the picture!

Here's one I love...on our favorite rock:

A nice, normal family, right?  Ha!  Let's take a quick look a the picture that was taken just before that one...

A little background.  In order to get the shot Matt had to do some serious Olympic type work.  The camera was stationed in a nice high tree, and the photo spot was a good 10 yards (plus a huge incline) from the camera.  So...the conversation before and during the shot went something like this:

Matt: "GUYS.  This is serious. Once I press the button, SMILE.  DO NOT STOP SMILING until you see that flashy light.   EVERYONE'S CHRISTMAS DEPENDS ON THIS."

Caitlin: " Duh dad.   We got this.  Blah blah blah smile".  (Typical pre-teen talk.)  

Ben: (who loves to mimic)" YEAH DAD BLAH BLAH HAHAHAHA" (he would later regret this).

Matt clicks the button, We have ten seconds to be completely ready. He makes a flying leap into position, produces the perfect smile with three seconds to spare...at which point Ben decides to turn around to tell me something completely unnecessary like "Mommy that camera is about to flash".  And the camera clicks.  And catches Matt in the middle of a four letter word, me horrified at the use of said four letter word, and Matthew...realizing that Ben has just ruined Christmas.  Again.  Hannah and Caitlin, my rule followers, never stopped smiling of course.  

So much for nice normal family.

The rest of the pictures were better.  No more (on camera) four letter words and for the most part a happy family.  We made it to the top and pictures along the way:

The top!!  In the background is the lake...this picture does NOT do the view justice....it's beautiful!

From the top overlooking the other side...beautiful mountain view!

Me: THANK YOU GOD FOR THE END OF THIS HIKE
Ben: Wow! Is it really over so soon?

And...we made it back to the parking lot!  (no breadcrumbs necessary).  And here you see Ben's ride for the majority of the downhills.  On the uphills it was better...he rode on Matt's shoulder for those.  The boy lasted all of 1.5 miles and then decided this was cold and WAY too much work.  So we got to taxi Ben for the rest of the trip.    

This is actually at the beginning of the hike...see how happy everyone is?  Just wait.  Six miles and 35,000 Ben complaints later they won't be looking so cheerful...

It really was a good trip.  On the way home Matt and I decided that after several trips to Vogel, this was now a tradition.  Which means we'll be back next year :).  CANT WAIT...;)