Nothing like recapping last weekend on a Thursday

We didn't do much last weekend. Except that one day we CLIMBED A MOUNTAIN WITH CHILDREN STRAPPED TO OUR BACKS.  

Pardon the awful iPhone photos, please and thank you.

This was all my idea. Everything was decorated for Buddha's birthday and the temperatures looked promising, so why not hike the most popular mountain in our area?

Lots of monks chanting and people praying.

And me, taking awkwardly loud (and crooked!) cell phone pictures of everything.

Must learn how to pose my own family. And I'm still smiling so you know this is pre-hike.

If you're like me, when you see all of these steps, you're like, "Oh how nice! Much better than just taking a trail!" Until you are on step 6,842 and there is no landing in sight and there are still 8 million steps left to climb. Somewhere around step 927, my thighs told me this was a bad idea.

So I mostly just brought up the rear, sucking wind, and letting Koreans take pictures of me and Molly.

And then there weren't always steps.

Efffffffffff.... How in the hell am I going to get back down?

It was about this time that Sam complained to us that his arms hurt. Oh my. Let me express all of my deepest sympathies to you. I am just sweating a black hole into Molly's stomach and my thighs are so jello-licious that they are shaking and threatening to give out on me at any moment. But let's stop and see if there is any way we can make your ride more comfortable. Someone could have been birthing a baby on the side of that mountain and I probably would have made a comment about how at least they got to sit down for a minute. And carrying the baby in your belly is SOOOOOooooooOOOO much easier than on your back. Empathy and sympathy- I was full of it.

At the end, during some of the flat parts, Sam wanted to get down and walk, and Molly wanted to switch rides because she was probably over the sweat and all of my heavy breathing and groaning. The thought of loading Sam back on me was kinda laughable (3 pounds heavier than my former load! Gahhhh) so Steve went into full-on Dad beast mode and carried them both.

And looked good doing it.

He made it all look effortless and easy and the looks and comments he got from the Koreans were pretty priceless. When they finally saw Molly in the backpack, their eyes about popped right out of their heads and they'd hold up two fingers and grab their heads in disbelief, incredulous at his Hulk-like strength and cute baby-making abilities.

More lanterns, a waterfall, yadda yadda, and then this fancy air machine that blew all of the dirt off of your shoes.

And last but not least...

This beauty. Just oozing class like only a leopard-print car can.

And that, my friends, is what we did last Saturday. Shockingly, I could walk the next day. No one was more surprised than yours truly. Here's to hoping this weekend is less physically-demanding.