Creating Traditions

Tomorrow I'm teaching a lesson at church about establishing a heritage of righteous traditions. I have been thinking a lot about the traditions that my own family had as I was growing up... and I have also been thinking about the traditions that we have created as Kevin and I have started our own family. Righteous traditions are defined in this lesson as "those things we do repeatedly that bring us closer to God and closer as a family."


One of the incredible things about where we live is how beautiful it is outside for a good portion of the year. Oftentimes our weekends get bogged down with running errands, church activities and meetings, parties, preparing for lessons, and household chores... and by Sunday night we sometimes feel like we have barely spent any time together. A new tradition that we have started is to spend time outdoors exploring together as a family each weekend. With our recent move, there are so many new places to discover.

Today we spent the morning at Mt. Diablo. We drove to the Summit, explored, went to the visitor's center, and then hiked down some trails.


Kevin's dad lived on Mt. Diablo when he was in high school (his dad, Kevin's grandpa, was a park ranger). As we drove up to the Summit, Kevin shared some of the things he remembered from hikes when he was younger and stories his dad would tell.


The weather was gorgeous (although a little chilly for me) and we loved looking for bugs and lizards as we hiked down (and back up).



Aren't these the two cutest guys ever??


From the top of Mt. Diablo it was so clear that we could see across the Bay to San Francisco and even see the Golden Gate Bridge.


Our goal was to hike from the Summit to this cool rock formation. Kevin was stoked to climb it (while I led Andrew in the opposite direction so he didn't get any crazy ideas).


Andrew climbed the first chunk of the rock with Kevin...



and then we started back hiking to the Summit while Kev fulfilled his climbing goal of the day :) (see the tiny person on top of the big rock below?) Andrew kept yelling, "be careful daddy!" and "come down daddy."


Little dude was a stellar hiker and only wanted to be carried a little bit (usually on the really steep uphill spots... which made the hike a good workout for both of us).


I have now compiled a huge list of great East Bay places to hike with kids. I'm excited to start chipping away at the list each weekend this summer. It was so nice to spend a few hours together as a family having fun before we had to finish our weekend "to-do" lists.