Oakley's first hiking adventure

My sister Kristie, who lives in Maine, has been in town with her family for the past few weeks. For their last day in town on Monday they wanted to go hiking in the mountains, so we all strapped on our hiking shoes and packed our sacks and headed up Little Cottonwood canyon to Albion Basin. We were going to hike to Cecret lake, which is a really easy hike, only a mile long, and it's beautiful. I think they call it cecret lake cause it's camoflauged. You'd never know there was a lake up there. The hike is a little steep at the end, but overall, it's doable.
Well, I was going to attempt this with Oakley. He's never been on a hike before. We run around the playground and other things, but he's never had to climb up that much, and he's never ridden in a backpack, so I didn't know how we were going to go about it. In the end, I decided to just let him walk, cause he's always telling me he wants to walk. I thought if he needed to be carried, I could just put him on my shoulders, or he could ride on one of his uncles shoulders.
So we started on the trail. Oakley did really well for about 5 minutes, and then he was ready to be carried, but he didn't want to go on my shoulders, he wanted me to just carry him with my arms. I did, but it was tiring. Then my sister tried to carry him, but he would have none of that. He wanted mom. The only saving grace was that every 100 meters or so we'd have to cross a little stream, so I'd put Oakley down and he'd throw rocks in so I could get a break. Then I'd have him choose some rocks to throw in the next stream, so he'd leave that one and move on with me. It worked for a while, but finally we ran out of streams, and we got to the really steep part at the end. My brother Abel said he'd carry him on his shoulders, so we forced him up there as he was screaming and kicking and Abel just ran up the 1/4 mile of hill to the lake. Oakley stopped screaming after 2 minutes and was fine with it. What a silly kid.
When we got to the lake it was beautiful. The water was so nice we all wanted to just jump in, but it's a watershed lake so we couldn't. We found a nice rock and ate our lunch and threw rocks in the lake. Oakley loved climbing up the big rocks, and the surprising part was that he walked almost the whole way down afterwards. I carried him on the steep part, but then he wanted to get down, and he would just run down the trail. I think he only biffed it like once.
It was a great day, and Oakley took a nice nap afterwards. I think next time we might try another approach though.
Here are a few pictures of the clan.

Getting ready for the hike. Nice shirts huh? We made them last week. Here's the gang, minus Kristie who was taking the picture

The first 5 minutes. Oakley was leading the pack.

Thank goodness for streams to throw rocks in along the way. Looks like everybody else liked the streams too.

The steep part where Oakley actually let uncle Abel carry him.

Oak throwing rocks into the lake.

The rescue efforts of a waterbottle that had fallen into the lake. Yes that is my sister Kristie being held by her leg, reaching down into the water. The mission was successful.

MMmmmmm, lunch. Even Kayla came with us. She was a good kid and rode in a backpack though.

Cousin Amber wanting to put her feet in, which I think she did, but don't tell anyone.

Oakley loves his aunt Katy and cousin Kayla. He just went right over and sat on her lap. What a lapful.

There's proof that I was there too.

Best friends, Sammy and Matt. Looking down on the beautiful lake.

Oakley heading down the mountain. He liked walking with a stick. No, it wasn't a walking stick cause it wasn't long enough. I think he just likes saying stick. He'd throw those in the streams too.

And of course, the beautiful wild flowers. These pictures don't do them justice. It was a perfect time to go. So pretty.