Steps to a Healthy Heart

Here are the steps we would run each evening after dinner settled. There are only 168...I thought the sign said 368...it feels more like 400 steps that's for sure. When we all first start them at the bottom, we started strong and we were able to run, then your heart feels like it has swollen 5 times its normal size, and it's hard to get your breath back and you lose your fast pace, to say the least. Except for Robby, he runs up those stairs like a bunny rabbit!



Here is a picture taken from around the middle of the 160 steps (the last 8 are at the very top by the falls). Kinda reminds me of Heaven for people who love hiking...instead of "the light" at the end of the tunnel...it's the path at the end of a rock staircase ; ) !!!

Here's the view turned around...from the bottom to about halfway. Robby is trying to slide down the wooden side-rails...not too bright, but they are worn down and smooth from people holding on to them. You can barely see Raleigh or Shawn (Raleigh's brother) standing there in the white area (that's the parking lot).

Brandon enjoys hanging out and taking photos with me...in fact, he took most of the pictures of the stairs. On this day we didn't race (as you can tell with the flip-flops). This was the last evening we were there and we took Raleigh's brother and his wife, Janice, and their children with us. For those of you who know Shawn, he was cracking me up because he was really working hard to get up the stairs....he kept saying, "Crap! I'm getting light-headed!"

Mingo Falls....this picture does not even do this place justice. It is such a short hike (after the brutal stair climb) to this fall, but it is so pretty in real life!

Bottom of Mingo Falls near the bridge we stand on...the boys always go off the path and start climbing up the rocks.

Here is Emma being "brave." She climbed all the way to HERE on this HUGE tree. She was pretending she was riding a horse. Usually she won't climb much further than this, but since her older cousin was there, she actually CAREFULLY climbed past the tree and onto the slippery rocks...big deal for my little scaredy cat!!




See, I told you! Emma climbed ALL the way to the slippery rocks to have her photo taken! This is Raleigh and his brother, Shawn. My 4 kids and Shawn's two girls, Victoria and Aleah.

And this is my sweet son, Robby, standing at the bottom of the stairs, WAITING, like he always did, on his mother to get there....He was either at the top of the stairs, or bottom, just waiting, with this sweet, sweet smile....almost as if to say, "Ha-ha, what took you so long?"