The day we climbed a mountain

I admit, it wasn't my brightest moment, but last Sunday I thought it would be fun to take the girls to Cowles Mountain.

(To all you out-of-towners, Cowles is a hiking mountain about 5 minutes away from our house. It's almost always packed with runners, hikers, families and dogs!)

Marina and Ella LOVED it right away. The climbed up the trail with no problem whatsoever. Marina interjected sayings along the way like "this is a tough hike!" and "we're going so high!"

Ella only stopped to wave at dogs and fellow toddlers.

It was all going so well and we got about 1/4 up (which is impressive for one mom and two kids under age 3, ok?).

We stopped for a snack of water, bananas and apples and everyone decided it was time to head back down.

And then it was trouble city.

Marina wouldn't let go of my hand and walked suuuper slow. Which was fine. But Ella was much too excited about the prospect of going downhill to go slow.

Ella ran down the hill, ignoring the jagged rocks and slippery dirt. I kept imagining her falling and cracking her head on one of the rocks and I'd be standing on the mountain with a bleeding baby and Marina not letting go of my hand.

So I caught up to Ella, pulling Marina along. Whenever there were stairs or a steep section, I'd hold Ella's hand.

Only Ella kept screaming "NO HANDS." (Though when she says it, it sounds like "NO ANDZZ.") And she threw herself on the ground many, many times.

I kind of took it personally, like, really? You'd rather cover yourself in dirt and rocks and snot than hold my hand for just one minute?

Yes. The answer is yes.

All these people looked at Ella, then looked at me and more than one hiker asked if I needed help.

Help?

Help is why we're in this situation in the first place. If you can figure out how to get my almost 18-month-old to accept your help, then by all means, help!

Finally, I had to carry screaming Ella and pull whiney Marina down the rest of the way and let me tell you, hikers may be nice and all, but they aren't too good with noise.

So. Many. Evil. Eyes.

We got to the bottom and as soon as they saw the water fountain, it was like nothing ever happened.

"That was fun!" Marina said.

And looking back at it, yes, it really was fun.