Slow and Steady Wins the Race (Silver Falls)

Wow, what a night! Orion had started saying at home that he didn't want to go to the woods. I think he got some idea of that being a scary word, maybe from something on TV? I tired switching to saying forest, but I don't think that really helped. He was fine when he got there and ran all around, but then when he was inside the cabin he mentioned it again. Things didn't really kick into high gear until bedtime though....

Orion was being his usual wide awake self, but then he started bawling all of a sudden. When he calmed down enough to talk he started saying monsters were going to come out of the woods and into the cabin. He has talked about monsters before, but never with anything that seemed like sincere fear and also never while trying to go to sleep. He came up with all kinds of scenarios when we said they couldn't get it. They are going to get invisible and that was how. They were going to get tiny and that was how. He wanted the sheet over his head and Ron had to hold both sides of it down. (This is a kid that HATES to be under a blanket AT ALL). Ron tried a very practical approach, saying he was stronger than any monster, reminding Orion of all his gym training LOL. I tried a more magical approach and told him monsters are afraid of love and could never get near us because we have so much love in our family. Between the two of us, he finally calmed down enough to go to sleep, but ??? It seems so "four" to have those huge fears, but maybe it just had something to do with being away from home. He usually travels really well though. I have never seen anything like this while camping or in CA.

At least he slept fairly well once he got to sleep. Me on the other hand - bleh. I did not sleep well at all. I woke up with my back still really hurting and it felt like I could barely get down the hill to the car. I had brought a walking stick with me and figured I would just go as slow as need be, but I was determined to at least see South Falls since they looked so close to the parking, and then figured we would go from there. Oddly enough, by the time we got to the trail head and I got moving, I felt OK. I still went super, super slow all day, like comically slow, but my back actually felt better at the end of the day! Maybe I should be walking more! It was also kindof cool because I didn't mind however much Orion wanted to poke along, and I probably noticed more detail than I usually do!

Unfortunately that didn't translate into any superb photos from the trip. It was I could do to manage walking, and Ron was managing Orion. :) We did get a few neat ones, but I would have loved to have the mobility to and speed to shoot more, especially since the weather turned out to be AMAZING. I think the forecast was scattered showers, but we didn't see a cloud all day! It was gorgeous!

This is the first view of South Falls from the view point. You can see that the trail goes behind the falls, which I was excited to experience.
On the way down, little side trip to Frenchie Falls that Orion and Ron took as I kept going. He said I didn't miss much.
Hard to see, but that is me and Orion coming through behind the falls. We didn't take many pictures here as there was alot of spray!

Orion on his stump throne. He kept saying things like he was the king of this or that when he would sit down. One time when he got up, he said, "I took off my crown." I felt pretty good, so we kept on down the trail to see Lower South Falls. Great idea, until I saw it was all stairs to get to the bottom. I was starting to feel some muscle strain, and it was a long ways back, at least at my speed! So we just went far enough down to get this view. So here it is - about 3/4 of Lower South Falls! hahaha
Taken from the same exact spot on a bench. To the left was the view of the falls and to the right was the trail back up, and a rock Orion apparently took a liking to.
View of the creek on the way back. I loved all the moss covered trees.
The fascination of kids will never fail to intrigue me. You can hike all day, but for some reason this patch of dirt was something special.
We stopped to rest at this bench, and it had a bolt sticking up, so Orion decided it needed to be hammered. He found a suitable rock and...
... several whacks later, the rock is now smaller and you can notice several little pieces scattered about. The lesson: metal is harder than sandstone.
Orion also spent a LARGE percentage of his time on the trail finding rocks and throwing them in the creek. When your mom is walking at about a snail's pace, you have lots of time for these activities. :)
Back near the base of South Falls, waving at Daddy from the bridge. I am catching my breath as we are about to start a LONG uphill climb back to the parking lot. I found out you can use a walking stick kindof like an oar to push up hills. I thought my arms would be soarer than they were at the end of the day because I really put them through a workout!
Another stump with a hole in it.
After this stretch of hiking, we headed back to the cabin for lunch. We had checked the menu at the lodge to find out they had fruit popsicles, so that was our big plan for the second half of the day. And here we are back at the lodge. Ron makes fun of me for taking so many pictures of Orion eating, but what can I say? I think they are cute. Daddy feeding Orion...
... and finishing up on his own.
We had noticed there was a playground near the lodge on the way in, so that was where we headed next. The grass was full of these little white flowers that Orion picked for us. And I would be remiss if I didn't point out that this is what Ron calls his douchebag haircut. He got it because he was expecting to go on an interview on Friday, and then they ended up doing it over the phone!
The grass and some areas of the wood chips were totally waterlogged, so Orion engaged in his favorite activity of puddle stomping. At some point, his boots were so full, we could hear the water in them as he walked, so he decided to dump them out.
I wish I had captured the water actually falling out, but an equal point of note is the sock that had been white at the start of the day.
Near the playground was also the official "swimming" area of the park. The whole creek is so shallow here that I can't imagine you could do anything but wade, but it is a nice flat entry.
Checkin' out the water. It wasn't as cold as I expected.
We had signed up for dinner at the conference center that night. It was pretty good, although the chicken had a topping with peppers, which Ron hates. Orion really liked it and ate a bunch of carrots too. They even had a wheat free dessert of cooked apples and raisins topped with nuts and brown sugar. The cook seemed really allergy savvy, which was a pleasant surprise. The weather was nice enough that we took our food outside. We were the only ones out there. The rest of the center was filled with middle age plus women all there together from some sewing group. So it was grandma central for Orion, and they seemed to get a kick out of him.

Dinner was pretty early, so we had alot of time to kill at the cabin. Luckily I had brought some games and books, and Orion is easily entertained with jumping on beds. He also decided to have a long conversation with his sister.
It started out with kisses and hugs, then he wanted to talk to her. Pretty much every question started with, "Excuse me, sister?" And then I got to play her voice. This went of for ages! He was asking her everything under the sun, from what she thought of the hike, to what she liked that I had for dinner and more I can't even remember. It was hilarious and so cute. Ron finally grabbed the video camera and caught some of it. He is supposed to be getting it on YouTube, so I will hopefully be able to link it later. I should learn how to do that. I have no clue whatsoever about that.

Wonder if we will have more monster talk tonight....