Grotto

Yesterday we decided to go spend some more time outdoors since Saturday's ride had been so fun.  Tyke wanted to go play at the park and we said that we would but then we all decided that it would be more fun to go get some lunch and picnic up the canyon while fishing.  Tyke was game for that!  He's always asking to go fishing.  So we got a few things gathered and headed to Payson.  We stopped at Smith's quick to find some food for our picnic and then we headed up.  We were surprised to see that there weren't many cars parked at the Grotto trail head, and I've never been to it before, so we decided to go for a little hike.  It was a nice, fun little hike and the kids loved it!  Luke rode on his Daddy's shoulders the entire time and Tyke ran a head of us excitedly.  He loved walking across all of the little bridges by himself and refused help most of the time.  There were a few spots that I got scared of for him and grabbed his arm to help him but I'm sure he could have done it by himself too.  He's pretty fearless and it's not like it was really gnarly places just the trail had sloughed off and I thought it might be too slick for him in his cowboy boots.  The kiddos were mesmerized when we finally made it to the waterfall, the Grotto!  Tyke had fun throwing rocks in the small pool and splashing in the water.  Luke just kind of looked around and took it all in but we never put him down.  I don't think he would have liked that anyway.  We took a few pics and then headed back to the truck.  We passed a lot of people on the way out and the parking lot was full when we got back to the truck.  We had made perfect timing and missed rush hour.

Tyke was sad to have to get back in the truck and thought that we were done for the day and heading back home.  He was so mad that we weren't going fishing and we had a hard time convincing him that we had to drive up to the pond to fish.  He was confused and sad.  Silly Tyke!  We went to Payson lake to fish and we were able to find ourselves a shaded little piece of shoreline with a picnic table.  Daddy got the poles ready and we cast them out and then attempted to eat some lunch.  While we were making our turkey wraps Tyke yelled, "Daddy you dot a big fish!"  We turned and looked and saw that Daddy's pole was bobbing up and down, sure enough he had a fish on the line.  Tyke was so excited to get to reel it in!  He was proud as could be about his catch and kept telling me, "Mommy I a good fisher and you're not!"  He and Luke loved watching the fish squirm while Daddy got it off of the line and on a rope to take home.  Tyke wanted to hold it until he touched it and scrame, "Ew it's slimy!"  We fished for a while longer but never caught anything else.  We headed back home via the loop road and the boys quickly fell asleep and napped the entire time.  It was another good, fun day!