I did it!

For several months, I've been wanting to go on a hike with my son but the timing has not been just right. He emailed me on Friday and said, "Interested in hiking to the waterfall today? Should be good waterfall with the latest rain." I quickly reviewed my "things I MUST get done today" list and figured out that I MAYBE could meet him. I was working from home on Friday and son gets off work at 1:00 so I knew he would want to go around 1:30.  At a few minutes after 1:00, I texted him that I did indeed want to go but he might have to wait just a few minutes on me.

The temperature dropped about 40 degrees from Friday morning until Friday afternoon - seriously. I don't have a lot of clothes that fit right now but I dug around and found an old pair of jeans but there was a tiny problem -- I needed a belt to hold them onto my body. I don't own any belts . . .well, I own ONE belt that is black patent leather and goes on a dress I wear to work.  Guess what? That belt totally worked! Who cares about the fashion sense, right? I was going to be in the woods with my son and three dogs!!

I layered up - shirt, scarf, warm thin jacket, big sweatshirt, leggings under the jeans, socks, tennis shoes. Good grief, that was a lot of clothes!

We struck out on the gray afternoon. The second we left the car, the dogs were off and running. They were so happy to be outside and they knew how to lead the way.

son is bundled up against the cold, too

We saw some GIANT rocks

As I mentioned earlier, the day was gray and dreary and it was so cool to come upon a patch of BRIGHT GREEN moss - it would be a beautiful pop of color at the base of a tree or on a big rock

We had to cross a stream - I couldn't do the pipe walk so we went across on the slippery rocks - got one foot a tad wet at that point.

I kept saying to son, "I can hear the falls." I'm not sure I could. An interesting fact is this nature preserve is right by our house. You feel as if you are deep in the woods and then you will hear something and realize it is a car on a main road not too far away . . .and then silence again. It was "spitting rain" and that rain felt icy!!

You can tell that I'm all layered up - I said, "take my picture - I DID IT! I made it to the falls." Can you tell that I was proud of myself?

The falls are beautiful - there is one more fall up even higher that spills into the middle one that spills into the bottom one. Son said there is another fall that is much smaller in the preserve and people hike to it and are disappointed - evidently, everyone doesn't know about this series of falls. It was so cold and those dogs kept getting in the water. Finley is the youngest GSP and her lips were quivering! I've never seen a dog do that before!!

Dakota is gorgeous - she stuck with me the whole time - 

I think it was one old lady hanging with

the other old lady!

On the way back, I got the other foot wet and I ALMOST slid in but I didn't - whew! Glenn caught me!! This was a good hike and I felt so healthy and good!! Now, I'm not going to lie . . .I was up five times during the night on Friday night with leg cramps (old!) but it was worth it! Our hike was one of the longest spans of time our son and I have spent together - just us - talking in a long time. I enjoyed the cold air. I felt alive. I marveled at God's creation. I laughed at the dogs. It was good!