Bradley-Kepler

Saturday we had a chance to go on a hike. I have finally been given the ok to do anything like that. Theron was too small and it was nap time, so he hung out with Candy while we took the other kids to Bradley Kepler. This is the same lake that I like to take pictures of in the past...you know the one with the colorful trees on the left and the house at the end of the lake....same photo...just frozen over :) I liked this, because it shows that there's still green even though it's so cold...our spring is on it's way. It would have been great to have Theron in this shot, but he wouldn't have made it. Bridger is such a little ham. Austin Bright eyed Jake. I'd love a normal picture of this crazy guy I love so much....not today :) He had tons of fun with the smaller kids though. Hiking was slow and steady. It was fun to just take it all in. When we got on the other side of the mountain we found a lake. Kurt zipped out there and we learned a bit from Austin that I never knew. Austin doesn't like to be on icy lakes. He was scared of it falling through. In fact when Jake was checking out the shore line Austin was predicting when Jake was going to fall through. You could see it in Austin's eyes the sign to run for land. He was nearly in tears when Jake was jumping on the ice. I think we've found a phobia of Austins. I've never seen him so unstable before. He stayed very still. I was interesting seeing him unsure of where he was. Ember on the other hand was hamming it up. When we got back on land we found some dead trees in decomposition mode. We learned on Planet Earth on BBC that in the Northern part of the world up by the North pole that part of decomposition requires mushrooms in the fall. We found some here in ALASKA. Jake got the camera, and had to show off my wrinkles...wow, I look horrid :) At times when the smaller kids would get tired Austin would give them piggy back rides. If you look on Jake right hip that black item on his belt is Bear mace...We were a little nervous about waking a bear up. Jake was "prepared" to prepare the bear for some dinner....bears like pepper on their dinner, didn't you know? Kurt was good about waiting up for us. I liked the ice trail that we were on. It wasn't like this the whole way, but it sure was cool looking. It was about 40 degrees out. Austin was also good about waiting for us slow pokes When the kids had found a fallen tree on the trail they thought it was pretty cool to ice skate underneath it. What would a family hike be without Jake's twitching eye... Once again, back on the lake that Austin wasn't to fond of. When we were out there we found a few ice holes where people had fished...and it had iced back over. Very cool to see about how thick the ice was. Austin felt a little safer after seeing a few of these. But the kids thought it was cool to lay on the ice and get some pics....all except Austin of course. Once we got back on safe ground again, Jake had found a tree that had been sawed off...They were smelling it. I guess this was much better than the ice idea :) Once again, Austin was such a good brother to give his little sister a piggy back ride. When Bridger had to pee, he even helped Bridger find a tree and helped him pee on it. The only bad thing was....Bridger peed on Austin, because Bridger couldn't hold it any more. It was a lot of fun to take a few hours, and go hiking. We all had fun. It will be nice when the snow melts and we can do this and have Theron with us. It was certainly a beautiful day. I'm glad we had the opportunity to be together even if some of us were wearing shorts :)