Three Creeks South - Kylo's First Hike

I'm not going to lie. I have thoroughly enjoyed the Missouri winter we've had for the past 2 years. I have barely broken out my winter coat and we've enjoyed year round hiking. Forecasts of bad winter weather are usually grossly overrated and underwhelming in reality here in Central Missouri. I'll take the temperate weather and all the outdoor activities that come with it.

So back in February, we brought home our new puppy, Kylo. When he threw up the entire way to our home that first day, we just assumed he had overeaten, was scared, or a combination of the two. We soon learned however that Kylo is just one of those puppies that gets car sick. Anytime we drive more than 2 minutes. Poor thing. The vet says that maybe he will outgrow it and maybe he won't.

We were most bummed by this development because we desperately wanted to be able to take Kylo hiking with us. The very weekend after we brought him home, before we realized the extend of his car sickness, we did attempt to take him for a hike - to  Three Creeks of course! It was the first really nice day of the spring - the kind when you don't need jackets, and everyone seemed to be going outside to play. Kylo's first hike!

I've written before about the steep slope to the creek from this trail. It's pretty much straight down. Which means pretty much straight up when we go back to the car. But we love it down there.

We rarely see anyone else on this trail, but on this particular day, we saw probably a dozen people, all out enjoying the nice sunny day at the creek.

Lex was able to sport his new Minecraft sunglasses, a party favor from a birthday party the previous day.

It was no time at all before pant legs were rolled up and we were all getting our feet wet.

The great thing about this creek is that there is just so much space to explore, wade, climb, build with rocks, sunbathe... Once you get down there, you can just park it for as long as you want to play.

It is so pretty everywhere you look.

And then there was Kylo, exploring the water, getting ever so close, without getting in. He has grown so much since this picture was taken.

The boys explored all over.

Before too long, Kylo finally tipped his toe in and then got a drink from the creek.

We criss-crossed back and forth across the creek whenever we found a stone bridge to cross.

At one point, for whatever reason, the boys didn't want to cross the creek. So Jeremy carried Eli across first.

Then went back...

And carried Lex across too. Daddy to the rescue!

And there's Kylo again, so little and so curious.

But because he wasn't feeling to well from the car ride and was exhausted from all the exploring, he eventually just found a pile of leaves to rest in.

He fell fast asleep and slept so long in that one spot.

We wanted to give him some time to rest, so we just explored around this area.

When we had first arrived at the creek, we saw a group of people who were rock climbing. They appeared to effortlessly scale this rock wall and disappeared out of sight.

So I thought to myself, we can do that! Up Eli went.

And then Lex and me too. We got pretty high up pretty quickly.

And then I looked down and got really nervous because I was actually further up than I had thought.

The boys didn't seem to mind too much.

Somehow, we all made it back down.

We begrudgingly headed back to the car after several hours at the creek.

And as for sleepy little Kylo, I ended up carrying him back up in the backpack like a baby carrier. He actually didn't seem to mind it much at all!

Kylo hasn't been out hiking since this one back in February because of the car sick thing... but the rest of us have! So stay tuned for more of our spring adventures!