Mt. Charleston

Recently, we made a quick trip to our "old home" in Las Vegas.  The older kids like to see places we took them when they were babies and the hospital where they were born.   OK...really, they could probably care less, but it's fun for me to show them (time after time) anyways!

Most of the time when we make the pilgrimage back to the Motherland, we're complaining by the time we get to Barstow, then wonder why we even came in the first place: It's almost always either too hot or too cold (depending on the season) to do anything outdoors, and it's ALWAYS too dry.  This most recent trip; however, was a little different.  It was actually cloudy and even a bit stormy!  We decided to take the kids hiking in the mountains outside of town.  It was so nice when we got up there.  Overcast and a bit drizzly.  Since it was 101 degrees in town, of course we didn't think about bringing jackets or rain gear...but we should have!  About 1/3 of the way into the hike, it started storming!  We could hear the thunder getting closer and closer, but we thought we could finish our hike before the storm.  We were wrong!  The temperature dropped into the 50's and poured.  We turned around and walked back down the  mountain with a bit of a chill.  It was a great day. I was so proud of the kids for being troopers-especially Sara, who bravely hiked for 1/2 mile in the thunder and pouring rain (Anna and Ryan would have been terrified at her age!)  She didn't seem too bothered by the thunder, just that she was getting cold.  We don't witness too many thunderstorms in LA, so being caught in the middle of one on a mountain is a day we will never forget!  Next time we go, we're going to finish the hike!

Before the rain!