While he treks, we backpack...

We couldn't let Brother have all the fun this week so we decided to take Sister on a backpack trip.

Since Marc and Brother have been backpacking so much this summer, Sister keeps asking when she and Daddy get to go. So, Thursday night we decided to take Sister on her first ever backpacking trip.

Marc was pretty excited that I had decided to go with them.

The only reason that was possible was because of sweet Lindsey. I'm telling you, she's a saint. She spent the night with Baby so that Marc and I could have this special time with Sister... and let me tell you...

It.

Was.

Special.

 She looks a bit nervous here... but, I promise, she was excited.

I don't think Sister could have made her daddy any prouder! She was such a great hiker!

This is Sister "signing" us in on the trail roster for the hike to Silver Lake:

We had no time to stop and rest on the way up the 2.2 mile climb because we had started late and needed to get to our camp spot before dark.

The hike was so much fun with our chatty Sister with us. She had loads of questions and tons of things to tell us all about. In the 2 hours it took us to hike up there she never ran out of things to talk about. Goodness! I love that girl!

Marc and I had such a great time listening to her and talking with her. She made us laugh so many times and, I hate to say, I can't even remember what she said that made us laugh so much. She's just a hoot--so full of personality.

As hard as we pushed up the mountain, we did not get up there before dark. That's when Sister started to get a little nervous--we could tell by the question asked every 10 - 15 steps, "Where's our camp? When are we there?"

Sister and I were very brave as we hiked up the rocky and sometimes slippery trail in the dark while Marc led us on with his headlamp. There were a few times that Sister seemed to be really struggling to get up the last of the trail so I offered to take her backpack for her each time but she refused because she wanted to backpack all by herself. I was so proud of her, I'm sure it was not easy. I was so proud and humbled at how she took over her Fragile X anxiety and stuck to her goal of getting up on her own. She's almost 8 and hiked 2.2 miles with part of the way up in the dark!

When we did finally get to Silver Lake, our destination, Sister was overjoyed and so were we!

iPhone, flash and darkness are really not a good mix, but you can still see the smile on her face!

Marc set up camp while Sister and I took care of potty breaks and star gazing.

Before going off to slumber land we had to try a few pictures of the 3 of us laying down in the tent.

We weren't too successful at 

getting a good one...

Tee hee!

Marc was the first to really be up and about so he was able to get some great morning shots of our views from the camp spot, the lake and below. Most importantly, though, was the picture of me and Sister snuggled in the tent still sleeping.

This spot is beautifully amazing!

This was one of the first backpack trips I ever went on with Marc. I've been wanting to come back up here for a long time. I'll never forget how beautiful it was to see it for the first time. It was like discovering a hidden treasure.

When Sister woke up in the morning to see all that there was around us, she was so excited.

Marc cooked up some chicken and rice for breakfast (breakfast of champions...). Sister was happy to eat with her daddy in such a wonderful setting as lakeside.

Sister was excited to get her backpack back on.

We went down a few feet from our tent site, watched fish jump in the lake and take a few photos.

I am so not good at selfies, I have proven that numerous times...

After getting packed up we headed down the trail. We were able to take our time a little bit more on this one. Sister only fell 3 times and was a trooper (not a tripper) every time. She is tough.

In starting down we heard from some hikers coming up that there was a moose along the trail. This got all 3 of us excited. A moose! This would just top of our memorable hike!

Too bad we didn't have nice cameras... you can hardly tell what it is.

I had to take a picture of Marc taking a picture of the moose so you could see how close it was to the trail, and it still looks far away... optical illusions... awesome.

Here are the rest of our descent pictures:

I love her hair in this one. It just shows you the energy she had the whole time
when you see her jumping off the boulder blocking the trail

She loved crossing this bridge so we had to get a picture with each of us.

This week was a big one in Our Life. Sister's first backpack trip and Brother's first Trek (post to come soon). Oh, and Baby had a big week too being alone with a babysitter over night... she did well and didn't seem to mind that it was Lindsey who was around in the morning instead of her family.

This summer is proving to be a summer of hurdling milestones and breaking barriers!

Rock on! Woo!