Sunny day hike with a spirited five year old

 Mom: I was so excited to see the first sunny spring day. Analise had asked to go with me but wanted a short hike. I chose Weldon Wagon Road on the Washington side of the gorge because I like that there is lots of sun exposure and it is a kid-friendly hike. Analise packed a backpack with water and sunglasses and was determined to hike. Analise is my spirited five year old with an autism diagnosis. She is very expressive and creative and also struggles with rigidity. Hiking is hard because it requires flexibility and tolerating discomfort. Anytime she has motivation to hike I get very excited.

 Analise: I loved walking up the trail. It was so fun! 🙏🙆😺😦💘😝💭💭💟💥😈😺😹😸😷💜💖💀💝💓🙌

 Mom: A friend joined us on this hike and I gave her a walki talki so that she could hike ahead if she wanted and one to Analise. This gave Analise something good to focus on. I promised to stop for lunch pretty early into the hike as well. We left the dog at home since she hikes at a much faster pace.

 Analise: I loved the little flowers! They were so pretty!🍛🍵🐁🐀🐈🐇🍼🎂🐱🐲🐵🐾🐠🐂🍏🍎🍐🍑🍒🍓🍔🍕🍕🍕🍕

 Mom: I loved seeing the long needled pines and coming out of the trees to views of the valley below.

 Mom: We had almost gotten to the lunch spot and Analise was doing great using the walki talki to distract from the challenge of walking uphill.

 Analise: I did not like mom taking pictures of me. 🎆🎅🎄🎃♡♥♦💒🏉🎴🎠🎦🃕🃍🂶🂴🃉🃏🃇🂹🀇🀈🀉🀄🀡⚾⚽🀪🂸🂵🃍🂸🂩🂳🂶🂩

 Mom: These old trees made me smile.

 Mom: Taking time to soak in the sun and enjoy the view of the scrub oaks and valley.

 Analise: Mom tried to take a selfie of me and her but it came out to be a big fail! ☎👑💉💮🕓🕘🕜🔧📵📬📘📙📗📍🔍📌📋📊📉📈📇📆📅📄📃💹

 Mom: We didn't make it quite far enough to see Mt. Hood but our friend did. Still a really nice view.

 Analise: I used the walki talki to sing loudly "Shot to the heart and you're to blame. You give love a bad name!" and also to check on our friend. 🌝🌞🌟🌠🔥🌜🌛🌚🌐🌑🌈🌂✨🌀🌏🌄🌕  analise

 Mom: More signs of spring!

 Analise: i won the race.💟👶👷💓😇😏😍🙀😿😾😾😽😼😻😺😹😸🙉🙊💧💢💤💃👹👸👭👬👰👯👮👐👏👪👫👍👌👋👊👉👈👇👆👅

 Mom: I took a short rest on the hillside in the sunshine since Analise claimed to be too tired to hike any further up the hill. She enjoyed playing with rocks and our friend hiked ahead to the viewpoint.

 Analise: I WAS 😎😍😌💭💬😧😡😱😰😤RUNNING😉😀👩👪👄👅👏👧👨💙💟💭👻😁💃👺😈😈😕😔😌

 Analise: Mom was trying to take a picture of me but I put my hand up and it made a big fail. 🚼🚻🛅🛄🚺🚰🚞🚋🚚🗼🏩🚢🚗🏮🚓🚘🚱🏯🚐🚋💈⛼⛻⛺⛹⛱⛶⛷analise

 Analise: I was climbing the hill in the sunshine to play. My hiking energy had run out. ⛰🚷🚓🚍🚕🚮🚹🛃🛂🛁🚽🛅🛄🚛🚑💈🚋🚹🚮🛂🏩🏨🏡🗽

 Mom: Sitting on the hillside while Analise played was lovely.

 Analise: I was running down the hill toward the car. 🚪🚽🚧⛱

 Mom: Heading back down toward the car, continuing to enjoy the sunshine and trees.

Mom: These needles are so long! I am grateful to have a patient friend to hike with and to have this time with Analise. She gave the hike a 10 out of 5 and said she really liked the pretty view. She gave herself an A+ and me a B-. It was a nice time together.

Four Year old Camping Adventure

It was with some optimism, a little fear, and trepidation, that I set out with two four year old friends and a dad to Lewis River Falls for the friends first camping trip. This is a very long drive, and after much listening to Moana soundtrack and some questioning when we would be there, we arrived and found a campsite.

Though she is not a fan of new places and experience, Analise wanted to go camping with me. Her favorite pastime is playing in the dirt. We found this hollowed out tree near camp to explore.

After setting up camp, the young friends did agree to a short walk to the Lower Lewis River Falls. The river was beautiful.

Not only is my youngest four, she has an Autism diagnosis which leads to a lot of rigidity and an aversion to hiking. We got into an argument that ended in screaming and tears about whether we could take the trail back to the campsite to enjoy the view of the river rather than the road. This was not what Analise was expecting so she resorted to screaming and crying for her daddy which is very discouraging while I am trying to enjoy the woods. We worked to compromise though and the not so great behavior and not so great parental response moment passed.

We all had a peaceful and cozy night other than friend having a difficult time settling down. All morning we tended the fire and "roasted sticks" while our friends did some exploring and some hanging out at camp.

I tried to enjoy my unique, beautiful youngest daughter and watching her interact with her young friend.Sometimes adventures together can be really challenging since our ideas of what is nurturing can be pretty opposite, and I have to let go of expectations. I have intentionally taken time for self nurture and challenging hikes by myself, with friends, and with her sister. This was our time to be together and to appreciate the neurodiversity that comes with how she sees the world and the creative world that she and her friend create!

I am grateful for the time and hope to take these two on more adventures to come!