It was a haul...

For the last couple of years Doug and I have celebrated our anniversary by going on a hike with our kiddos somewhere around Mount Rainier.

This year for our 8th anniversary we packed up the family and headed out to get a closer look at the giant Mountain we see everyday behind our home.

This years drive was 100 times easier then years past. One year I was pregnant with Molly and the next two years Molly would cry and cry in her car seat. 

This year the whole trip was fun not just the hiking part.

To get to the mountain for us we drive up hwy. 410, then turn off onto the very beautiful hwy 123 which not only frames amazing views of the mountain

 but also takes you threw some awesome tunnels.

Reflection lakes

And then finally Paradise.

On this small ridge you can start hiking and then visit the Paradise inn and the Henry M. Jackson Memorial visitor Center.

It was such a beautiful Pacific Northwest day and the temperature was a perfect 71 degrees up at 5400ft. 

All Emilie wanted to do was play in the snow and honestly I thought this was as far as we would go.

I was wrong. 

See the trail behind the girls.

We followed it as far as we could.

These stairs are amazing. 

Can you imagine building this staircase?

That is some serious dedication to this park and the folks that visit it by the people who did.

Still going up...

For most of the hike Emilie would run ahead and we would have to tell her to wait for us.

At this point in the hike we where at about 6000 feet.

Little miss has some amazing lungs and legs.

It felt so amazing to be this high up and to be able to share it with my kids.

Even they where blown away by the beauty of the views and the land we where walking on.

At one point in the hike Colin turned around and thanked Doug and I for picking such an awesome place to live.

That's Mount Adams behind them

I tried the entire hike to get a good group shot.

This is as good as it gets...

We almost made it to Panorama point (the folks behind Colin) which is at 6800 feet but little toes and hands where starting to get cold.

We started at 5400 feet and almost went 6800 feet. 

That is awesome for a 6, 4 and 2 year old!

Doug took this picture of me with his iPhone. 

He thought my power stance was sooooo funny.

He's right I am really funny looking. I wish I had more of these kind of pictures.

Here is the picture I was trying to taking.

You can see the trail we hiked up.

Power hiker Emilie

Colin with Mount Adams in the back ground.

Molly got a free ride down the mountain.

I let her run free one last time before we finished the hike.

If you look real close you can see Colin and Emilie off to the right.

She mostly wanted to just run threw the puddles.

The snow was old news.

Emilie free to be...

The kiddos wanted to do one more short hike to Edith creek falls.

This is where we hiked to last time.

The park was doing a survey on tail use and for doing it they gave the kiddos stickers.

The stickers really summed the day up.

Living in Northwest can get pretty depressing at times with all of the rain, clouds and rain.

We start to forget the reasons we have for living here.

And just when you think you can't take anymore

the sun shows up and we remember why we live here.