Kanarraville Falls...

I'd seen a few peoples' pictures on social media from this place called "Kanarraville Falls" and I was smitten.  We'd done our fair share of hikes and I wanted a little break from all the swimming in St. George before we headed to our mountain spot, so this seemed just right.  A little pleasure in life that clearly, the Gardner guys needed to experience.  Fine... and their mama too.

 These boys are troopers.  I'm doing nothing but "building up their endurance" as we traverse from canyon to mountain to swimming pool, as opposed to "wearing them out"; but since I get to tag along and they alternate holding my hand...  whelp, I'm in.  Again & Again.

 It was all fun and games, trudging through cool water and back out to red rocks & red dirt for a good couple of miles.  They were gathering sticks as we walked and we talked about all the best things that run through little boys' heads... including Star Wars characters, "Whose older, Darth Vader or Yoda?" and the best comebacks from their favorite movie, "The Sandlot", wherein we landed on, "You Play Ball Like a Girl!"  {I'm still working on that one} And what animals we could eat if we had to stay the night and light a fire and make a bed out of pine needles... burning questions of little minds.

 And then we started to enter the slot canyon portion of our journey... 

Beautiful.

Intimidating.

 And I started to get a teeny tiny bit nervous since RyGar was working and I was the solo adult/Girl Scout leading my trio of adventurers.

 And then I saw "The ladder" and my "teeny tiny bit" of nerves morphed into a "near heart-attack level" bundle of nerves.  How exactly was I going to carry on with a five, four, and three-year-old up this questionable looking log/ladder?  And as I sat back to ponder if we should just turn around, they just climbed on up.  One at a time, like the sure-footed little mountain goats they are.

And I, like the decisive leader, shrugged my shoulders and thought, "Well, here I go."

Fist Bumps to my fine parenting/reasoning skills, yeah?

It was a gorgeous day.  The scenes of my tiny trekkers will forever be etched in my mind.  I love adventuring with them.  And you are well aware of my feelings of adoration about the red rock places in the world... they will always prevail and put wind in my hair and get me out there.  

 Another one of Summer's simple pleasures has been fully experienced by all but the big guy.  So dang, twist our arms, we'll be forced to head back next year and teach him our ways.  And let his heart do a little dance of nerves when we encounter that dang ladder part.  Whew.  :)