AJ's First Hike!

A couple weekends ago some of my girlfriends invited me to go on a hike with them in El Moro Canyon, between Newport Beach and Laguna Beach. It sounded great! I have been wanting to hike for months now, especially with other moms and kids. I've been looking for a way exercise with AJ, in which we can enjoy each other and have fun too. Health is definitely becoming more valuable to me and I want to instill that into AJ. This was the perfect opportunity for us!

The other kids going were at least 10. AJ is 6 1/2... that is quite a difference. I had hesitations about going, but decided we should just get out there and try it; we'd learn along the way.

Sunday morning we met the group at 9am. AJ had a great attitude, but had no idea what we were about to do. He liked the fact that other friends were with us though. We started to walk the trails and learned that many were closed as they had been washed out in heavy rains in the few weeks prior. We found one that was open.

We walked up a large hill... up and up and up. About 10 minutes into it, it became obvious that our pace was slower than the rest of the group. AJ started whining about having asthma and his legs hurting and everything going wrong. I tried to motivate him through it. I told him lets go slow and steady, not worry about staying with the group, and just give it our best try to get on top of the hill. After some coaching, he pulled through.

We not only made it to the top of that mountain, but continued on three miles out! It was continuously up and down, not many flat stretches to relax on. At one point, we reached the bottom of an extremely steep hill. It was very symbolic. I saw it coming up and tried to motivate AJ beforehand to know that he could make it. I took some great pictures of him working his way up that big mountain. He made it up, slowly and steadily, without much of a problem at all. I was so proud!

On another part of the trail, we found fossils! Dirt had washed away from the recent rains to uncover five fossilized shells on the path. One was very large and they were all in perfect shape. It was awesome to see them in nature - and even more awesome to share that with my son.

On the way back, AJ tripped on a loose rock and scraped his knee pretty badly. He was very upset to see it bleeding. I picked him up and carried him for a few minutes. I cuddled with him and told him he'd be okay and that we just needed to make it back but that I couldn't carry him the whole way. I put him back down and he just kept right on going.

Shortly before making it back, it started sprinkling rain. We just stayed focused and before long it was done. AJ was the youngest kid on the entire trail. Many adults looked at him surprised that he was out there.

Throughout the six mile hike, AJ kept a great attitude. He was not always all smiles, but he tried his best - and did an EXCELLENT job! I was amazed this boy could go that far and long. He helped motivate me as well. As soon as we got down the hill he said, "I miss it up there". CUTIE!

YEAAAHHHH AJ!!!!! I love you baby!