"Is this the Grand Canyon?"

As a preface to this posting, I must talk about my current obsession. It is not really my "current" obsession---I have always and will always love this. However, this time of year only feeds my obsession (literally), making it worse. HALLOWEEN CANDY. Chocolate Halloween candy to be exact. One of the girls I babysit pronounces it, "chau-let." So I have been eating SO much chaulet lately. It is everywhere I go. It is everything about which I talk. I love me some chaulet Halloween candy. Let's get together and eat some chaulet.

This blog should really be entitled, Things My Family Hasn't Been Able To Do In 11 Years Because Of Nutcracker Rehearsals. I know that that blog sounds fascinating to all of you. I hate to break it to y'all, buuuut that is kind of what y'all are reading about. Phew, I feel so much better having let that secret out.

Today's adventure was... a trip to the mountains! Cloudland Canyon to be exact. It was beautiful (and I don't even like being outdoors...).

As per usual, we left late. Between 8-9 am was the decided departure time. Ann and Dad were slowly rolling out of bed around 7:55 am. Just in time to throw on an old pair of clothes and hit the road! Right? Wrong. Just in time to take a shower, and scramble some eggs, and post a few rantings on Facebook....I mean, check some e-mails. 3(ish) hours later we arrive at Cloudland Canyon State Park, pinic in hand. By picnic I mean Chick-Fil-A nuggets, fruit, and.....can you guess?? Some chaulet! I had to fuel up before descending and promptly ascending 600+ steps. After some yummy sugar we were off on the Waterfalls Trail.

Here are a few samples of the talk on the way down...

After 10 stairs:
    A: This is so fun!!!! So pretty!!! (she clicks away taking pictures) p.s.-Ann is taking photography class now so a camera is constantly attached to her hip.

After 150 stairs:
    Dad: Woo hoo! These stairs are nice. Who built these? They had to like...design them. I wonder when they were built? How did they design them this way? Mary Caroline, were they here when we were younger? Can I think of some more questions?

After 322 stairs:
    Mom: I just twisted my ankle. Oh well, I'll just keep walking!
    A: MY LEGS ARE SHAKING. I AM NOT KIDDING. CAN I WAIT HERE FOR Y'ALL? NO REALLY, THEY ARE SHAKING.

After 515 stairs:
    Dad: Wooeee this is gonna be fun on the climb back up!

After 600 stairs:
    A: Were we really all the way up there?! I hear water. Where is it? Ow ow ow ow ow ow my legs. Ow.

Now, nothing is more inspiring on a 600 step descend then knowing that you'll see a beautiful, tall waterfall at the bottom, right? Wrong, yet again. There was no beautiful, luscious, tall, free-flowing waterfall anywhere. There was a dribble. A leaky faucet. A light drip of water. Whatever "it" was, "it" could not qualify as a waterfall. I can climb down 6 stairs to my kitchen to see flowing water like that. In all seriousness, well...in all seriousness that really is what we saw; however, it was so beautiful outside and we had lots of fun exercising in the fresh air :) (And picking on Ann's...I mean each other's out of shape-ness). Thankfully the engineers who designed the "fascinating to Russ Moore stairs" put in lots of benches.  There were lots of much needed sitting stops on the way up. Hello, quads! We meet again. Please be nice to me.

Here are a few pictures!

View from one of the Outlooks

The beginning of the stairs...dun dun dun

We were all the way up there looking down here, now we are all the way down here looking up there

Carry me back up, pleeeeeeeease :(

As far as the title of this post....yes, a child did ask his parents this question as he ran down the stairs. Also for some more exciting news for today, congratulations to Bridget and Randy on the birth of Evelyn Sophia!! The newest member of Studio Dance Theatre :) Now, I wonder what exciting, blog worthy adventures will happen next weekend...