Civilization.....there's a lot to be said for it!

I think I married the greatest man on earth! However, he bugs the crap right out of me sometimes. He is convinced to make all of us lovers of the outdoors. Now, don't get me wrong, I love the outdoors. I love the beach, I love to ride my bike, I love to swim, I like to take walks, I like the outdoors. BUT....I like to go places that aren't so primitive. If I'm going to go hiking then I want to hike on a well established trail. I'm not about hiking over boulders and worrying about twisting my ankle and breaking it. I don't want to have to worry about me or my family members being mauled by a bear. I like things that are civilized and well established. Well the point to all of this was to tell you about our fabulous family outing today. Charles has a goal for the family to hike down to Havasu Falls. I think it's somewhere in the Grand Canyon. Now I have seen pictures and it is beautiful. So in order to achieve this he wanted to start practicing hiking. We need to work up to it since it is a 10 mile hike. Charles planned a Saturday of hiking and I must have way misunderstood what he was dragging me into. First of all the road to where he took us was anything but fun. I had to use my core muscles for 30 minutes straight to keep from bouncing out of the car. It was MISERABLE. Plus, I'm on my period and had some mild cramping but with the jerking and jostling the cramps went past mild. Not to mention the muscles it took to stay in my seat. So after the first stop I was being a real trooper. The kids were having fun and it was all good, old fashioned, family fun. We even walked in a cave about 150 feet and promptly left when I saw about a thousand spiders piled up in a corner. Seriously, it was about 1000+ of those grand-daddy long-leg looking spiders. Creepy. I said this is where I stop. So, off to the next stop. We got back in the car and jostled our way to another "fun" stop. By this time I need a bathroom to take care of lady business and the best thing I have is a stinky hole. I said hell no! I rarely do public restrooms and I ain't about to go climbing into some hut with a hole to do feminine hygiene business. Completely frustrating.

I tried to tell Charles that when you are easing someone into something they don't particularly care for you can't go planning a day to do the not fun thing for 3-4 hours. That's not easing one into something. That's making them never want to do it with you again. Like I said, I like to hike. I just think there needs to be some great reward at the end of a hike. Like....say.... a picnic or a fabulous waterfall of the top of a gorgeous mountain. I don't want to go wandering all over east hell just to say I did. Then needless to say what goes up must come down. We climbed back in the vehicle to shake our way down the unpaved, primitive road. Yeah I was a little aggravated by the time we arrived home. Of course Charles thinks I made it un-fun by being a little miserable. Of course the misery didn't start until I realized just how long he was making this hiking trip. In the end, I didn't finish the last part of the trip and Cody and I made it back to the car. The rest of the bunch finished the hike and saw nothing great and came back down. I did get some great pictures and we finally made it home and I was able to bathe and be back in some civilization. I love boys! They'll never know what it's like to be a lady.