I hope everyone’s fourth of July went well. If you’re not in the United States, I still hope it went well and got to see something spectacular like fireworks anyways. I heard the Chinese New Year puts any of our celebrations to shame so you can gloat on me that entire month.
Yesterday I took the kiddos to Oaks Park. It’s an amusement part next to the river that was actually pretty fun. The rides were very state fair-ish but the whole thing was fun… oh how I miss Six Flags. But we did have a great time.
I am a huge thrill seeker when it comes to my rides. If my hair isn’t messed up by the end of it, I didn’t have fun. Two years ago I couldn’t even get my kids on a mini drop ride. This year, one of my kids was all for the spinning and bouncing and woohooing. But the other kid… not so much. He was almost too scared to go on the kids spinning teacup kind of ride. So when my thrill seeker mini asked to go on a ride that spun alternating directions and bounced higher than a two story house, I knew as a mom, I honestly couldn’t force the other kid to get on. We asked, he said no. I said it was just like the first spinny ride but it bounced high… he said no. I wasn’t going to make my kid cry so I said “You know bug, sometimes you have to face your fears to realize you had nothing to worry about. But if you’re too scared right now, I’m not going to make you get on it.” Full House Danny Tanny sappy music was playing for this parental speech by the way, followed by an awwwwwww from the audience. Just kidding. I think Free Falling was playing in the background on the Screaming Eagle ride to be honest. But needless to say, thrill seeker, who had already jumped in line for the spider and was jumping up and down waving for us to come over, was crushed we weren’t going on.
Something I love about my kids is that they protect each other. They feel each other’s pain. When one is sent to his room, the other worries about him the entire time. They bicker like all kids and there are times you’d think they hated each other. But when you get to the heart of it, they’d die to save the other one if they had to. We walked to the other side of the park. Sadly it was all thrill rides and we had already done all the kid rides. I was about to tell the boys we’d go do the kid rides again, but then my kid who isn’t into thrill rides suprised me. He said… word for word… in the goofy style that he’s known for… “Well I guess I gotta face a fear. To the spider!” and started running back towards where the spider was. It was a proud mama moment.
In the line, he faced about 30 changes of heart. It didn’t help that adults were getting freaked out in line and leaving. I kept telling him we’d stay in line and if we got to the front and he didn’t want to go on, we’d head straight for the exit, but I also said if he faced his fear he would be really proud of himself. We got to the front of the line. He didn’t panic. We got on the ride. He didn’t panic. The ride started moving and I could literally FEEL him shaking next to me. I had a safety bar crushing the air out of me so I couldn’t exactly move to console my kid.
First the car started spinning. I looked over at him and he looked almost puzzled. After the first bounce, I could see a grin. Second bounce, he laughed. Third bounce, he was cheering with his brother. As a mom, of course I was about to start crying like a baby at how proud I was of my kid. But then the nausea kind of crept in from all the spinning. In the 2 minute long ride my NEW thrill seeker was cracking jokes about being Tigger and doing the “Hoo hoo hoooooo” with a few of the bounces. They he said we were Xtreme pogo sticking. The kid was going crazy over this ride. And the previous thrill seeker was laughing and giggling but also pale and extremely nautious like I was.
Right after the ride, my kid who faced his fear wanted to go on it AGAIN! His brother and I… wanted to vomit.
Moral of the story- Don’t share a gatorade with your thrill seeker son right before a spinny bouncy ride. The person who doesn’t drink will have the most fun. Drinking and riding is bad mmmkay.
Bigger moral of the story- Face your fears. If the statistics are in your favor that it’s not going to kill you, and isn’t bad for your health,why not try it?
Your challenge for the day is to think about facing/face a fitness fear. If you’re afraid of a group exercise class but really interested in what the class is… seek one out and give it a try. If you want to try to water ski… put together a group and go. If you want to wear spandex and don’t want to be giggled at for the wobble wobble of your butt… who cares? Shake it till you make it. Afraid your family won’t like your new healthier version of lasagna? They can make a sandwich. They’ll be ok. Try it anyways. Want a friend to come exercise with you but afraid they’ll turn you down? The worst thing they can do is say no, right?
I’m going to follow through with this one also. I have avoided getting a speaker system to teach Hip Hop Hustle at my apartments like they’re going to make me battle zombies in the process. I know I can do a warmup. Why not be the actual leader of the class? I can do this! I’m going to have hubby take me TODAY to go pick out something that will play the music and learn how to yell over it.
Feel that adrenaline pumping? Run with it. Work yourself up. Get excited. Be a nine year old kid with his fist held high and charge towards the Spider.
But not like this guy…
Behind my kids is Multnomah falls, a place that has become my new favorite destination. It’s actually about an hour from my house near Cascade Locks, Oregon. The falls actually contains a few huge falls and hundreds of mini ones. When we first found this place we had stopped at Horsetail falls on our way into Oregon. I had mentioned it in a previous blog where I asked you guys to get out and explore. Well, I’m hoping that this post encourages you to get out and find places you have not yet adventured to.
This is much higer up on the bridge you see in the first picture. It’s about an 8th of a mile through a congrete path to get up here.
After you pass the bridge, there is a concrete path that takes up up 11 switchbacks a mile up the mountain. This is about a half mile up, looking back at the Columbian River that is right behind you this whole part of the hike. Take note, there are no rails. So if you have small kids or animals that tend to not watch where they’re going, hold on tight or don’t go at all. I don’t think a drop from this side would kill them because the next switchback down would catch them, but they go high enough to hurt them and make it hard to get to them.
A little past a mile up, right before you see the sign for 11 out of 11 switchbacks, the pavement ends. The path starts to go down towards a river with a bridge over it. Of course the first thing my kids saw was the other kids playing in the freezing cold water… Ok, freezing cold to me.
They apparently loved it enough to sit down in the water. Behind me is a fallen tree that the kids were using as a bridge over the water. I had taken a video of it and a few more paths that took off from this area but the video wouldn’t upload. Unfortunately my kids are just as clumbsy as I am and would have fallen off the tree, so they didn’t get to go across.
If you keep following this path, it goes an extra 5 miles over rocky dirt, leads to a different large fall, and then you hike .3 miles back to Multnomah. With an untrained dog and two 9 year olds who are drenched in cold water, we weren’t going to go the whole hike around. At this point we were 2 miles in. If you look behind the boys, there is a mini fall. This literally goes for over a mile of watching river, drop, river, drop, river drop. The path is extremely uneven and only wide enough for 2 people, but very worth it.
Another half mile in is a path carved into the rock. Above you is all rock, so it’s like half of a cave. I was told by another hiker that people will wait under there on rainy days and the rain comes off like a waterfall in front of you. I thought it was amazing even without the waterfall over us. It had started raining (not hard enough to make the waterfall over the cave) so I couldn’t take pictures past this. A little past us was the large waterfall that makes this whole part of the river. Around it was a beautiful swimming pool (not the kind in a backyard but calm even water around where the fall hits down). At a little past 3 miles in, I told my kids it was time to head back. It was 5 in the afternoon, we didn’t know the path, and I had promised them fudge in the little villiage around Multnomah, so we weren’t going to be able to get around the whole path. And that path is only one of dozens for people to take. You could spend a week in this area and still not cover all the paths. I loved it. The webpage on it says crowded, but honestly, that’s just around the main falls that you can get to by car. We passed tons of families or groups going up and down the path in the concrete part but it wasn’t a steady incoming of them. It was like maybe one or two groups per switchback. When you head into the dirt and rock path, it’s rare to cross anyone.
If you can see in the middle, there is a border collie with a pink collar. That’s Sasha, our dog. She was actually the first to pass out in the car. We hadn’t even made it a mile down the highway. The boys passed out right after her. This hike is exhausting, but so worth it.
Today starts now 