Thanksgiving Hiking at Indian Rock

We road tripped to Salina Kansas for Thanksgiving.
My sister in law highjacked Thanksgiving dinner from my other sister in law this year and  had a get together at the Indian Rock lodge.   The lodge has a huge fireplace for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows and windows wrapping all around the building.  We skipped the hotdogs and had ham, turkey, and many lovely salads and soups.

The view is amazing as well as it overlooks the city.  I really wanted to kick off the shoes and run the hills but instead decided that taking the kids on the trails would be way more fun!   I enticed them to go hiking with the promise of throwing rocks in the pond below.

The local folk lore was that the pond was bottomless.  The bottomless story is still a much better story than what it turned out to be.  It's like how my dear one is one of  the great grand children of the Hotz that built the creepy "Hotz House" that the highschoolers sneak out to, myself included. It you are from Salina or the surrounding area you will know what I am referring to.  Funny to now be a Hotz.  Their history is interesting and he was paralyzed and did all the digging with one arm and was pretty good at compensating by being able to balance things on his head.

Back to Indian Rock Thanksgiving.  The only downside to renting the lodge is that it doesn't have a restroom. If you want to find a bush thats completely doable however if you want a real loo then heading down to the Caseys (old Green Lantern) down the hill.  

The view here is the best!  It turned out to be not as cold as expected and the sun was shining to keep us warm.

It was hard to leave behind the marshmallows and warmth of the fire but the trails were calling us and if I had serious energy to burn then they must have felt like moving too.

No one tumbled down the hill and I really wanted to run but I had the two little spawn and Jupiter to look after so I was already out numbered.  They wanted to run too but instead decided that crawling up the hill was good enough.

Jupiter played with cattails and the older kids enjoyed helping the little ones check out new places to hide and climb.

It switched quickly between sitting peacefully and taking in the lovelyness that is Indian Rock and giving your mother a heart attack!

Milo jumping was pretty tame.  Archimedes did fall on his little belly right here when he thought he could be like his older brother.   He was a trooper and brushed it off and kept on going with minimal tears.

Figuring out gravity and the art of climbing up hill is fun for the little guy with shallow understanding of cause and effect.  For a mother of an accident prone 4 year old it calls for much jittery heart beats and lots of smiling and laughing when the calls of "I did it" are sounded out.
                                        
Little voices calling me to come and look at this or that as the wander around and discover make this place all the more special.

The time finally came to climb back to the top. Again I must mention how photos never do hills justice!
Life is fun these days with cousin Corbin a teenager now and Sam and his girlfriend and loooong time friend Britt are tweens.  Oh the times I have ahead of me!

At least I can pinch them and cuss them from a distance!

As the sun goes down on Thanksgiving 2010 I am thankful to have spent it with family in the sunshine, hiking, in  warmish weather at one of my own childhood haunts.

Angie Bee is one happy girl.

and to top it off, there was chocolate cake left when we got back to the lodge.

Today it was even warmer and the mister and I went for a 10 mile run while the kids played.  

Life is good.  I wish you all happiness too and hoping you had a wonderful Thanksgiving!