Our Day in Kisatchie

Granted we never plan things well, the fam and I were going to take Lily to Longleaf Vista, and let her go see the water at the Bayou. Easy peasy. 
It was not easy peasy. 
We were there for hours, we hiked, we waded, and on two different occasions, I had to crawl upward on my hands and knees. 
On the way there, Rebecca asked "are you excited for your surprise?", and Lily goes, "uh mommy, there are just trees...."

We walked the trails, then climbed the steepest set of manmade stairs in the world, then climbed down another trail, only to go up another one of these butte things! 
Bailey and I before, and then after the adventure. 

After two hours of sweating, walking, climbing, and crawling, it was time for a highly nutritional lunch of kale and grilled chicken. 
​As you can see.......

​We were on the road again!

Miles and miles of this.

I was so excited to see her face when she saw the water. 

Lily wasn't having it. She didn't like the algae. 

I lost count of how many times my flip flop fell off and floated down the rapids. 

So we then ventured off to find "the place that Bailey and Dylan go to". 
Also, do you see what Lily is doing? On the way back this is relevant. She stops to pick up every stick, run her hands against every branch, and makes little piles in every available pile of sand. 

We walked for what seemed like hours. There were trails, there were bridges, and in some places, there wasn't anything. Just prayers and ravines. 

​Finally....I saw the hill of sand!

There is no graceful way to get down this thing. I consider rolling, lol, but I never would have lived that down. I ended up just kind of digging my heels in and surfing down. Completely exhausted from a) hours of walking, b) being fat and out of shape, and c) I did not bring the first Diet Dr. Pepper, when I reached the "beach" area, I just plopped on the ground. Hard. 
Big mistake. 
My hip.......popped. 
I wanted to cry out loud, but I didn't want to scare Lily.
Or more importantly get made fun of by my sisters, haha.
It still hurts 2 days later. I have been having trouble with it for about a month now, I can't lie on my back or sit comfortably on the couch. Straight back chairs for me. And yet I go plopping down with all my weight on the dang hard ground. 
Whut. 
I should suffer. 
Anyway, we all made it to the water, and Lily loved it. 

My car will never recover

I told her we needed to make a video of her swimming for her Daddy. 
One day I will remember to turn my phone sideways before filming. 

Paw prints from what could only be a grizzly bear....

 
I meant what I said about this hill. There is no way up. When you step, you slide back down. You sink more in. Lily weighs like 40 pounds and made it, but still struggled. When she got to the top, I told her to catch my keys and my phone. 
"No!!!!"....and off she ran. 
Okay, cool. 
It was terrible, ya'll. I was not only concerned dying here, alone, miles from the nearest road with no caffeine or Cheese Itz, and then I knew I had at least a couple of miles walk to the car. 
But I made it. 
​It was ugly. 

Once we all made it, we just kind of stood there, like damnhell, we have to walk all of this again. 
When we got to the part after we crawled over the ravine, there was a fork and we could go back the way we came, OR, followed the arrows nailed into the tree. Nothing could have been as bad as the trip there, so I voted that we followed the trail. 
So maybe I was wrong. 
Maybe it was ALL uphill and we all died. 
Maybe Lily stopped 3,333,444,222 times to pick up sticks, and make sand castles. 
Finally, we saw the light. 
It was the highway. We were a good 20 minutes from the car, but at least somewhere that people could find our bodies. 
​It wasn't so bad until Lily fell and scraped her knees. She doesn't do blood. 

We had it all planned out when we got to the car, we were all going to shake off the sand, change clothes, put my shoes in the trunk..... 
We did none of these things. We got to the car, slapped a Band aid on Lily, and high tailed it out of there. 

I did manage to get a ton of pics which I will add to my website. 
Lily had fun, we got to bond, and the weather was nice!
I give it a TEN!