Our latest hike...errr, walk

Remember I told you we were going to try to go on a hike every week?

Well, this week was a bit tricky.  

Last week we ran into snow and it sort of muddied our plans a bit.  This week, it snowed several inches (like 9 where we hiked last week) in the mountains on Tuesday.  That's spring in Utah.

However, it sort of put a damper on my plans so we had to come up with something different.

No worries, Jordan River Parkway Trail to the rescue!

We opted for the Murray section of the trail since it included several parks and a nature preserve to spice up our hike (cough, cough, walk) and help us stay entertained.  We left Josh at home to study for his upcoming Praxis test and off we went!

We parked in the lot at 4800 South and started out.

Lovely wetlands with viewing areas were great for the kids.

Gavin exploring the grass on the side of the trail.

Our adorable crew. (Notice the semi-grumpy face of one near teen ager who wasn't super happy to be forced into this activity.)

Cutie pies (and the still disenchanted near teen).

However, my sweet girl did perk up enough to give her younger brother a
piggy-back ride.  No wonder I love her even when she lets attitude dribble out.

We tossed pebbles into this "spring" and made wishes.  It was great!

 And after an hour and a half we came to the end of our 3.5 mile walk/hike and were rewarded with fun at a great little playground and picnic area (Walden Park).

I laid out the lunch while the kidlets enjoyed sun and water and refreshed themselves for the walk back to the car after we ate.

The park featured a splash pad, two playgrounds and a river feature so there was something here for everyone.

Our boys loved working on their parkour skills...some of them ended up wet, but it was nice to cool off and they dried off very quickly in the sun so it was all good.

Awwww, my babies!

The walk back did involve a little bit of whining about sore feet and sore knees, but seven miles of walking can do that to the best of us.  We passed off back packs so Mom could act as a pack mule for the littlest of the sore feeters and we all made it back with all our parts intact.  Lucky us!

Even if it wasn't exactly a hike the way we originally planned, it was still a really great way to spend the day.