Squaw Peak

For the past few years, Jeff has taken an interest in photography and has dragged us around with him numerous times so he can take pictures. Mostly it is just a minor inconvenience, as we end up spending time waiting for him in the car when the kids have had enough scenery. Every now and then, though, it becomes much more than we bargained for.

Last night, Jeff really wanted to drive up to Squaw Peak and take pictures of the fall leaves with snow covered Timp in the background. Since it was family night, we all decided to tag along. In an effort to get there before the light was lost, we inhaled our dinner, grabbed coats, and headed out the door. I was completely unaware what we were going to actually be doing once we got there, but figured we would probably be alright since we had the kids heavy coats.

Allie fell asleep on the drive, which should have been the first warning sign that she was not going to have a fun time while we were there (she is hard to wake up and usually very upset when we get her awake). But, after parking on the side of the dirt road, we managed to coax her out of the car without too much complaint. Jeff carried Kyla (who was only wearing sandals) and took Damon ahead to scout out the perfect picture location while I encouraged Allie to walk on her own behind them. A little ways up the road, I realized this was going to be difficult. The road was extremely muddy from all the rain on Sunday, and Allie was wearing slip on shoes two sizes too big with no socks. She started to complain that her feet were getting stuck, and I noticed the mud was more like clay, and nearly impossible to rub off.

By this time, we had entirely lost sight of Jeff, Damon and Kyla, but followed the path they had taken, hoping we would catch up soon. We couldn't find them soon enough. Allie's sticky shoes kept coming off, and multiple times she stepped off into the mud. Her positive attitude had completely vanished and she was now crying, feet cold and muddy, with no end in sight. I tried to scrape the mud off, and was somewhat successful, and we managed to find the rest of the family ahead. I told them I didn't think we were going to make it, as the road was getting muddier the higher we climbed, but Jeff told us to just come to the top, because it was a beautiful view and he wanted to take our picture.

Somehow, we made it, but Allie completely lost it. Her shoes were now covered with mud, both inside and out, and her freezing feet were also muddy. Jeff positioned us all on a log and tried to get us to smile. But Allie wasn't going to do it. She was in complete meltdown mode, and was beginning to rub off on Kyla, who was also starting to complain about her own cold feet (to be fair, I know it was our fault that we were so completely unprepared for the trek we made through the mud, and Jeff and I were trying to be extra patient with them). No amount of bribery was going to get Allie to stop crying and at least pretend to smile for a picture. So, when I see this, I have to laugh. Enlarge it for the full effect.


After we made it back to our car (Jeff carried Allie and I carried Kyla back down), Jeff said, "this is a good story for your blog." Yes, it was something I will probably want to remember.