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hiking the pipeline

yesterday, after church, we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and go for a hike on the pipeline trail. it’s about a mile from our house, and not too terribly difficult. lots of ups and downs though. we saw horses on the trail, lots of dogs, and tons of people. it’s a popular spot. we kind of just kept going, to see how far the kids wanted to go. they decided they wanted to go all the way into town, so that’s where we went. there’s a tully’s just down the road from where the trail crosses the main road, so we stopped there and sat down for a while over coffee and hot chocolate. then we turned around and headed back up and over.

005 006007009010 along the sidewalk near the tully’s I spotted little patches that looked like this! little green leaves from bulbs (probably daffodils or crocuses) poking through the dirt. LOVE it! spring WILL come!

011 the old hollywood schoolhouse is right across the intersection from the tully’s. layla wanted me to take her picture there. (I guess this is her ‘dancing on the edge of the hollywood sign’.)

the first hill back up is brutal. it’s known as heart attack or cardiac hill. we had the brilliant idea to search out geocaches on the way back. that gave the little kids (who were a little whiny) something to distract them.012 the sky was all kinds of crazy cool.019020 totally awesome with the olympics off in the distance.

some various caches we found. layla wanted to write her name in every one.014015017021022we were about to give up on this one when I spotted it:029 a weird selfie with the sun shining through my ear. nice.023026 the final stretch. those are the cascades off in the distance. totally awesome when you can look one direction and see one mountain range, then turn around and see the other one. love it!

total we did about 6.4 miles. layla did it all on foot. micah did about half, and then half in the backpack. my legs are a little sore today, but not bad.

dave and I have plans to actually do the WHOLE pipeline trail one day. either just us, or us and shane.

not sure of the actual mileage on it, because it there are a few places it jogs off and you have to pick it up on the other side of a freeway or something. but we could do it in a day. can’t wait!

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