Hiking the "M"

I would love to catch this space up sometime, but so far the catch-up has prevented the keep-up. So, for now, I am going to try to keep up and maybe if we are all lucky I will go back and fill in the gaps this summer.  However, have no fear - we had a good summer and there is a lot to share.  Thankfully, we were outside enjoying Montana, leaving less time for this space.

Hyat has recently asked multiple times to hike the M.  The hike to the M is about 1 and 1/2 miles and a gain of 850 feet in elevation. I have been to the M more times than I care to count as it is close to town and an easy training spot for my summer trail runs. Unfortunately, this summer we had not managed to get Hyat and Embrie up to the M.  On a recent Saturday, Karley and I packed up the kiddos and started out. Hyat was a rockstar and motored to the top with no problems.  Embrie did really awesome too, she asked to get in the backpack once, but maybe lasted 5 minutes before she wanted back out. We made it to the top and back down again with very little whining...and most of the whining was about who was going to be the leader!

The best part was that we saw Hyat's kindergarten teacher while we were hiking.  It was basically a celebrity sighting for Hyat. He was just completely in awe of seeing her in real life.  We saw her on her way up and down (we are only so fast with a 6 year old, 4 year old and 2 year old).  On the way up, we met her husband and dogs and Hyat showed her our dog, but after she had taken off, realized he forgot to introduce his sister.  When we saw her on her way back down, he was still a little wonder-struck and forgot he wanted to introduce Embrie until after she had passed.  He then started chasing her down and would have easily caught her if he hadn't had to wait for Embrie and I.  The whole scene was pretty cute and it was really fun to watch him run downhill - there is so much truth to how amazing little kids running form is! To top it all off his teacher shared about seeing him hiking in sharing circle on Monday - he was thrilled!

Here are the pics to prove it!

On the way up!

About 1/2 way and still smiling...

At the top! And just finished our Reeses!

Had to actually touch the M!

Back at the bottom with the M in the distance...
Waiting patiently for Karley and Hazen after the run down!