Lake Blanche

Oh heavenly heaven of dreamy goodness. It is a little sad that something that used to be an almost weekly event had to take a month of planning to make happen...but it happened. Yesterday I hiked to Lake Blanche, my favorite hike ever, in fall, my favorite season, with Brooke, my favorite. And it was everything we hoped it would be and more! More because we both weren't sure we'd make it to the top. Ha. Neither of us are in peak hiking shape. But we did it. Slowly but surely. It was a gorgeous day, like mid 60's. Tanner watched the older kids and I carried Lottie and she did awesome. Only had to stop and feed her twice, change a diaper once and otherwise she slept through it all. The leaves were amazing. These pictures unfortunately just don't capture the magnificence of it all.

I love this view

I love her

I was pretty exhausted by the top. But the hike down was so much more painful. Ha. My knees were not loving how steep it was. It felt more steep going down than coming up. And my toes and heels were not accustomed to hiking shoes and so they were hurting pretty good too. Man - I'm old and out of shape. But that's not what I should focus on. It was a completely different hike going down. I mean, obviously you see it from a different view but the dusk lighting made all the leaves seem like they were glowing or something. They were SO bright and brilliant and so much more incredible. It was so so so so pretty. And again the pictures don't even come close to doing it justice.

It was such a beautiful hike, obviously. But it was so great talking the whole time with my bestie. It did my heart and soul and body good. I'll keep enjoying this stage of parenting and the smallness and cuteness of the kids, but I do look forward to when we all can go on bigger hikes, or at least when it's easier to get me some more regular girlfriend time in :)