Labor Day daytrip

For Monday's holiday, we took a short day trip to Devil’s Tower, WY.  It's a pretty cool place.  There’s a visitor center and an easy 1 mile trail all the way around its base and over 200 climbing routes to the top. We let the kids set the pace most of the way around the base trail, so it took us about 3 hours to complete that mile. They wanted to explore every boulder and crevasse along the way. J

AJ and I went at an even slower pace than the other 3. He packed a backpack all on his own before we left. He kept surprising me with the things he thought to bring along. He had a water bottle. He brought his Jake and the Neverland Pirates’ spyglass so he could see the wildlife and rock climbers up close. He brought his camera to capture the scenery. He would stop every so often and snap a couple shots. We worked on getting fewer fingers in the frame and more of what he was interested photographing. He brought his Jake and the Neverland Pirates compass (you can spin the needle so it always points the way you want it to) so we wouldn't get lost. He brought a Star Wars Angry Birds notebook and suddenly was beset with the urge to sit down on the side of the trail and “write down all the things I am thinking, so I won't ever forget”. So we stopped and he scribbled in between the lines of his notebook and then proudly showed me how it looked just like grown up writing. So cute! 

He also brought the rope he made last summer at the Laura Ingals homestead, so that he could “climb Devil’s Tower!” Four might be my favorite age. M held the rope for him and he did use it to climb up a couple of boulders; that rope ended up being quite fun for the boys.