On(Off) the road adventure

Many posts back I may have mentioned my husband's love of trail riding.  For those of you unfamiliar with the term "trail riding" it means taking a hopefully four wheel drive vehicle off road through marked trails down winding dirt roads, over rocks, through mud, and across streams to sightsee in the great outdoors.   Ever since Matt's love of "riding the trails" began I have never been able to go on one of these rides because I was either pregnant or home with a baby.  Now that Lily is old enough Matt talked me into taking the girls with us on a family-friendly ride with several other friends with children.  The ride started in Sylacauga, AL and ended at Mt. Cheaha, about 45 miles off road along a mountain ridge through the Talladega National Forest. Keep in mind that this is an all day type of thing meaning a four year old and a two year old strapped in a car-seat for hours and hours while we drive around in the woods.  I have to tell you I was a little skeptical and a little more nervous.  So to compensate I packed every snack and toy I could think of that might help to survive the trip.

We left early on a very cold Saturday morning.  It was lightly snowing outside but thankfully we were heading south and it was supposed to warm up a bit.

The trip down was great.   Hannah and Lily always think it is exciting when they get to ride in Daddy's truck but we had a long day ahead of us and I still wasn't sure how things were going to go. 

**I should probably put a disclaimer here before I show the rest of my pictures.  This is what the window directly in front of me looked like and photographing around it was sometimes a little difficult.  It has been this way for about a year now and I am hoping that it will be fixed before we do this again....Oh Maaaaaatttt my favorite husband are you reading this?**

We made the trip with two other families and really enjoyed our time with them.

We spent the day going downhill, uphill, over streams and rocks, and around curvy, winding dirt trails...

and I have to say I really enjoyed it all.  It was nice to be outside on a cool winter's day in the middle of the woods exploring these trails.

I also loved driving through the woods filled with browns and grays of the trees, leaves and ground and then suddenly being surprised at the pops of color you could find.

But what really this trip worth it - besides the family time of course - were the views.

Even on a cloudy overcast day the views were great and Hannah's "wow" at such a site was really nice.

As for the car ride, I was completely amazed at how great Hannah and Lily did in the car for 9 hours.  The snacks and toys came in handy on the ride home but for the most part my girls enjoyed looking out the window...

showing me "abstract drawings" of everything they saw...

exploring in the woods...

and picnicking on Daddy's tailgate...

We stopped several times throughout the day to stretch our legs and pose for a few pictures in some of our favorite spots.

Toward the end of the trip Lily started telling me that her belly button was hurting.  After hearing this a couple of times I got a little worried that she might not feel so great and so we left the group and took a shortcut back to the main road.  We were all tired and ready to get home but thankfully even the ride back to Birmingham was a nice one full of some "ready to get out of this car" kind of silliness.

Matt was already talking about our next adventure on the way home so I am sure we will be on(off) the road again soon.