We planned a trip up to a place called Seven Falls for the weekend of July 4th. We were supposed to go with our friends the Griffey's around 1 PM on July 3rd. Unfortunately, that morning we realized our car was not going to make it up the mountains with our brakes as bad as they sounded. So, after a couple different stops, we found a Toyota Dealership that could fix our brakes but wouldn't have them done until 6 PM. So, our friends left and went up to the campground to set up while we got the brakes done, fed the kids and had them nap. We were on the road a little before 7 after picking up the car, getting gas and getting food for the kids. Luckily, the trip only took a couple of hours and we arrived there around 9 after a couple wrong turns and much rain pouring down on us. So, unfortunately, the campground and our tent which our friends were nice enough to set up for us were soaking wet. Also, our tent was missing a pole which kept the ends of the tent up so water w
ould pour away from the tent and not in the tent. Since we were missing that pole, we had a tent full of water along every edge and corner. We hung out for an hour or so with our friends to relax, then laid our sleeping bags in the middle of the tent and piled our bags on top of the kids feet of the their sleeping bags since it was the only dry spot an none of them really reached the ends of their sleeping bags and we tried for about 2 hours to get them all to go to sleep.The next morning, we got up and had breakfast. The kids had cereal and bacon and we had some eggs and bacon and bagels. We all put our tennis shoes on except for our friend Amy who did the whole hike pregnant and in flip flops and we hiked up to the top of the mountain to see the water falls and the view and then we came back down. Here are some of the pictures from the hike.
The picture on the top right is one of the first waterfalls as we were starting up the stairs to get to the top of the mountain.These pictures are of Ryan and the kids. The one on the left is them by the manmade waterfall early in the morning. The one towards the right is as we were hiking up the mountain. They are standing on a bridge in front of one of the waterfalls.
Here we all are standing on the same bridge. Our friend Amy was nice enough to take a picture for us so everyone in our family could be included. Then, we swapped and I took pictures for their family. It was a great but tiring hike up the mountain. I definitely got a workout since almost the entire way up the moutain it was steps. Talk about a step aerobic workout! This would definitely be it.
This waterfall was farther up the mountain. It was awesome to be able to watch all the water rushing down the mountain and was definitely a calming feeling to hear the water. We really enjoyed the trip there.
Luckily the whole way up the mountain there were stairs and for the most part, they had handrails so Hayden was able to make it up to the top with the help of Ryan.
This waterfall in this picture was one of the waterfalls we found towards the top of the mountain. I was so happy that I remembered to take my camera and was able to get some great scenic shots from our trip. This will definitely be a place to take family to visit and camp when they come to Japan. Hope you all are ready for the wilderness. 
The part of the hike that I thought the kids might get scared of was the cave that we had to walk through. It was pitch black and you couldn't see the end of it when you walked in. Luckily the flash from my camera was bright enough to get the picture! The kids were just excited and all I heard was "ECHO, ECHO". It was very cute. The rest of the hike had some very narrow steps, some missing handrails and at the very top had no steps and no handrails. Only Ryan and our friend Dustin went up to the top. Since Amy, the kids and I couldn't see the top view, the guys got us some pictures of the top of the mountain. Here is a partial view from the top with Ryan showing how high up we hiked. Definitely a good workout! The picture of Ryan and Hayden walking together by the man made waterfall is at the end of our hike back down the mountain and the rest of the pictures that will be posted on here are some pictures showing the campground and the kids having fun. We hope you enjoyed looking at our pictures because we know we enjoyed taking them.
