Devil's Chair

Yesterday the girls went adventuring with Sawyer.  They went to Apollo park, the aqueduct, had a picnic and went to the movies.  When they got home we watched "Brooklyn", which I thought was really cute. While they were gone the rest of us had a day at home.  Ethan's favorite.  And I ironed clothes.  Rob got back from his trip to TX, which he said went well.  He was happy to visit with the Dukes and Rob Black.

Today we went hiking at Devil's Punchbowl.  We did the devil's chair hike and it was a little easier than last time.   A little.  It was still hard.  We also had some challenges.  Grace didn't want to go so I let her stay home with Hannah's cell phone but she never answered it so I ended up worrying about her.

When we first got there Ethan and Sawyer asked if they could go adventuring.  We said yes as we were stopping at the bathroom and saying hi to Ruthie and Squints (the owls).  We didn't know what that meant and when we went to collect them they were no where to be found.  We hunted and called and debated what to do.  Finally we told the ranger where we were headed and left a note on the car and took off on the trail.  They knew where we would be.  Nonetheless we fretted and back tracked and wondered out loud until we finally got a hold of them (horrible cell reception).  They had run down the trail and followed the creek up and eventually met us about 2 miles into our trail.  They were happy as clams and thought we had all agreed to this plan.  The truth was we did agree, we just didn't understand what we were saying and what they were saying.  It worked out fine in the end and I shared some wisdom about men and women and how they communicate high on a mountain top with the trapped teens.
Actually I was only mildly concerned for them.  I figured a)they were together, an eagle scout and a life scout.  b) they aren't babies and c) they were faster than us and could catch us easily.  It turned out that way.

Chelsea

Hannah

two girls wondering where the boys were

all was forgiven

snack break

Once we were reunited we hiked along happily until the very end when we "lost" Ethan, and still couldn't get Grace on the phone and there were some worrisome not fun moments for me.

Then Chels found E and we got ahold of Grace and all was well and we hiked back.  8ish miles for the girls, maybe 2 more for the boys, one dirty dog and lots of fun later we were back in the car and starving.

searching

We stopped for fish tacos on the way home, found Grace just fine, and that was that.

Now tonight the girls are going on a double date with Elias and Sawyer to Mulligans, a mini golf, copes course, lazer tag, arcade family fun center.