Birthday Hike

I'm a bit behind. The photos were on Aaron's camera, the battery died, and I had to search for the charger, and work's been busy. So here's a little catch up:

August 21st was my 32nd birthday. Not only was it cool that it was my birthday, it's also cool because I found out it's President Monsons' birthday too. How cool are we?In the past, Aaron has taken me on some killer birthday adventures. My mom and sisters are always chomping at the bit to find out what Aaron's going to do for my birthday.

This year we're flat broke, so I knew what ever he had planned would be simple and no big deal. Boy, was I wrong! My Aaron came through for me again, making me feel so very special. Aaron had a long day at work and when he got home late that night, he brought with him a giant happy face balloon tied to a case of my favorite orange cream soda and a birthday card.On the table was a beautiful hydrangea plant with giant purple blooms. He told me he hadn't planned on getting the hydrangea for me, but when he saw it at the store, he thought of me, knew it was my favorite and that I would love it, so he bought it for me. So sweet!

The next day, Aaron got home from work early (1pm) and had his hands full with grocery bags. I asked what he was doing, he told me that we were going on a hike for my birthday. One of my most favorite things to do (besides eat and take a nap) is to go hiking. He had already arranged for his parents to watch Ev that night so we could go on an adventure! Woo hoo! Aaron had gone to the grocery store and bought all of my favorite snacks and drinks and packed a lunch for us to bring on the hike. We packed our gear and headed on the road.

As we rolled down the road Aaron turned on some tunes. To my amazement, he had made 2 CDs of music just for me of music that he thought I would like (he did great!). He put a grocery bag up front with us of travel snacks, so we munched on jerky and sunflower seeds as we headed up the 15 freeway.

Aaron handed me a book of California hiking trails and told me to turn to the section on Deep Creek. He had scoured the book and found an easy hike he thought I'd like. I started reading the description of the hike and location - it sounded great! I turned the page and continued reading "clothing optional, approximately 50% of swimmers choose to swim nude..." This DOES sound like an adventure! Aaron's jaw hit the floor. "I didn't read THAT part! If I had known that, I wouldn't have chosen this hike!" I calmed him down, "oh, come on, there's not going to be naked swimmers there."

We drove through the "lovely" city of Hesperia. I thanked Aaron profusely for NOT having us live there. On dirt roads and up the hills we went. The directions lead us to what was described as a 1920's cabin, which was actually more like a run-down shack in the dirt with hand painted signs everywhere. Out of the "cabin" came this dirty, sweaty Aussie who looked like he hadn't seen a bath in 2 weeks. He was really nice though, and gave us great instructions on the hike. Aaron filled out the needed car information and put the toll in the "box" which was a hole in the side of the cabin with a rock that had the word "box" pained on it. Hmmm...We parked and headed to the trail. Anyone who's ever been pregnant knows that the first thing on your mind is - where is the bathroom? Out here, that big rock, or that cluster of bushes IS the bathroom, so we smartly brought the toilet paper with us and I got to "bush it" along the way. I'm an outdoor girl, so it doesn't really bug me as long as I have someone to be a good look out.
During the first five minutes of the hike, you come across this warning:Nothing says adventure like a dangerous amoeba that will eat your brain. Nice!

The weather was perfect (80 degrees, with a cool breeze), and the hike was pretty easy – until the last drop into the canyon: Our mothers would have some words if they knew what their pregnant daughter was climbing over. Upon making it down the mountain alive, I saw a strange animal prancing through the bushes. It was all pink with a shaggy head of hair and boots. Yep, it was a naked person. “Aaron! Give me the camera!” He handed it to me and as I raised to shoot he realized what I was doing and snatched the camera away from me. “What? You don’t trust me?” His response was, “No way. You will NOT be taking pictures of naked people!” We spotted a couple more “pink animals”. The thing with swimmers that go nude, is that most of them should NOT go nude. The human body in its real form is not very pretty to look at.We headed down stream and found our own quiet spot where we could enjoy our lunch without the thought of naked people polluting the water. We ate our sandwiches and string cheese while we dangled our feet in the water.It was a perfect afternoon of just being alone. No work, no babies, no interruptions. It was nice to have a break. We didn’t get to stay too long since we got a late start and we headed back before it got dark.
Going back up that giant hill was not fun, but I did it – no complaining, plus I get pregnant lady points. That’s what I love about hiking. When you get to the top, you feel the sense of accomplishment. We went a bit slower on the way back. Mostly because I’m just a wee bit out of shape, but I loved every minute of our hike. We made it back to the truck just in time to see the sunset.On our way home we munched on the last turkey sandwich, root beer and Cheetos. The one thing I did miss right away about not having the diaper bag with me, was not having wipes readily available. I had Cheeto-fingers most of the way home.
Ev was asleep before we got home, so Aaron and I got to go in the spa and sip on orange soda floats – yum! My husband is just the best and knows me perfectly. What a great day.