Flattop

I groaned when I heard Van sometime past 6 this morning. By the time I came out he was already sitting on the couch with a styrofoam cup of frozen chicken nuggets looking at me wondering what were going to do today.

Since everyone else was going to be sleeping for a while, I decided today was the day. Van and I were going sneak out before everyone woke up and climb flattop. I fed Esther around 7:20 and headed right out the door.

It was a beautiful day. Van helped me pack his backpack full of treats and he headed up the mountain.

Van snacking on chicken nuggets

"Flattop has eyes! snow eyes!" says Van laughing

A hiking team

"No resemblance there!" noted a fellow hiker.

Van escaping my smooch

I thought we might lose steam at this point, it's really steep, but luckily Van loved the stairs and got excited about climbing them.

Taking a break at a bench

Cutest hiking partner ever

"I love climbing mountains!" says Van. 

You can see the fog has rolled in though...

The top of Flattop! but we can't see a thing

Van liked this rock wall

And this cool pile of rocks

Once we started heading down it went from foggy to pouring down rain. We made it down in about 25 mins, holding hands the whole way. It was fast for a toddler but we were soaked and I wanted to be at the car before he got sad. 

Van said he did not like getting caught in the rainstorm (called it a bad adventure) and although he loved climbing up the rocks he got a little scared coming down. So I'm not sure how he'd rate the overall experience. I needed better hiking clothes for him, his cotton pajama bottoms were soaked by the end and I ended up giving him my smartwool hoodie to wear over his coat.

I loved it though, I'm having so much fun now that Van is old enough to do these kinds of adventures with me. And seeing how well he was able to climb at 3 made me realize it won't be too long until I can't keep up with him!