One of our first adventures was this awesome hiking trail near the Botanical Gardens. My friend Amanda invited us to go with them. It begins as a pretty steep hike down the mountain.
Selfie
This girl strips her clothes off ALL the time. At one point on this day, I turned around to find her sitting naked on a big rock using the bathroom. I suppose it appeared to be the perfect toilet.
The bottom of this mountain is so beautiful.
The boys collected coconuts for their "house".
We let the boys be little Tarzans.
When we got to the top at the other side, we had a pretty big scare. The path, as you walk back up, is along the side of a cliff. We got to the top. We were all talking and looking for whales while the kids were playing. Evan was running and tripped and rolled over the side of the cliff. This would have been about a 200 foot drop into the Pacific Ocean. God must have stepped in and threw a patch of viney grass for Evan to get caught in. As he wiggled to try to get up, the grass was tearing away from the edge. I threw Madeline behind me and went toward the edge after Evan. When my foot hit that grass, I realized there was nothing underneath it. My left foot fell and I leaned backward to pull my bodyweight back. I grabbed the collar of Evan's shirt and his hair, a lady grabbed my arm, and we pulled him out. All of this happened probably within 10 seconds but when it plays back in my head, it seems like forever. It was by far one of the scariest times of my life. Brian carried Evan the entire way back to the car. So we learned that these gorgeous cliffs on the side of the ocean, can be deceivingly dangerous.
