Hiking at Johnson Branch

Every since we got back from Yosemite, Karie and I have been discussing our baby backpack.  We ran into some issues with the current backpack that we use.  While at Yosemite, Samantha fell asleep in the backpack and would lay straight back with her arms out.  This did not look comfortable for her and it made Karie and myself very nervous.  So over the last month, I have been doing research.  I found the Kelty backpack that we liked in stock at a local REI so we went to check it out.  I am sure the people in REI thought I was crazy as I walked around the store with Samantha in the backpack.  I wanted to make sure that she and I liked it before the purchase.  I tired on a couple of others but the Kelty had most of the features that I wanted.  My only disappointment is that there is not location for a hydration pouch, but I still may be able to rig something up.

Since we had the new pack, we decided to go out for a hike this last weekend.  Karie and I used to hike a lot before Samantha came along.  Since Karie is pregnant with #2 the hike pace was pretty slow but it didn't bother me because I had 30lbs. on my back.  Samantha did great in the pack.  We hiked for over 2 hours and Samantha didn't complain at all.  I tied her sippy cup to the pack with a shoe lace to prevent be from having to pick it up all the time. 

Over the hike, we would hand Samantha stuff off the trail.  The first thing we gave her was a long piece of grass that she thankfully dropped after a while.  She thought it was funny to put the grass in Daddy's face during the hike.  She also was given a dried up bean from one of the trees that she poked Daddy's neck and crumbled down his shirt.  But the mild annoyance was worth it because these things kept her entertained. 

After the hike we sat down at a covered table and had our lunch.  Samantha used the cooler as a table and ran around between bites to eat.  She seemed to be really enjoying herself.  She just loves being outside.

Once we had eaten, we drove over to the beach area and played for a while.  Since Samantha hasn't shown much interest in playing in the water before we didn't bring a swim suit.  I guess we should have because once Samantha got into the water, she didn't want to get out.  It was a lot of fun.  It was nice because we pretty much had the beach to ourselves and we didn't have to worry about Samantha getting trampled by bigger kids.  After about an hour in the water Samantha was starting to wind down and it was time to head home.

Samantha and mommy both crashed on the way home.  It had been a long good day.