Hiking with children is always an adventure 1/16/10

Today, we decided to take a hike to the top of one of the mountains in Fort Davis State Park which meets the Fort Davis National Park.  Most of the hikes we have taken are 2 miles or less but they are strenuous. Strenuous can mean rocky, hilly, steep, or long. Today's hike met that entire description and was 2 plus miles. 
We started out at the shelter and walked a short distance when I heard Jeff say, "Where's Katie?" I looked back to see Katie under the shelter that we just vacated. (This is the reason why throughout my day people hear me say, "1,2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 okay lets go.") When we are away from the bus, we always walk single file with Jeff keeping watch on Hannah, then Andrew, Melissa, Jacob, Joshua, me, Katie and Sierra. Sierra helps out with Katie, I watch Joshua and occasionally Sierra and I switch Katie and Joshua.  Anyway, Sierra went back to get Katie.  Once they were back with the group and in line, we started up the incline on the trail.
About half way up the trail, Hannah had to go potty. We all tried to convince her to go by the bush, or out in the open. Again she said that she needed a "real toilet". (I don't think she is understanding that in the desert there are NO REAL TOLIETS!) Oh, what is a Mom to do?  I looked around to see what supplies I had at my disposal. Other than a few bushes, lots of cactus, and plethora of rocks- there was nothing.
All of a sudden, I remembered back to my childhood when my step-sisters, my sister, Sherry, and I would play house in the woods. We would make rooms in our "house" which included a bathroom. What do you think we used?  Of course, we used flat rocks.
I was brought back to really by the sounds of Hannah whining, "I need to potty." I set out gathering a few flat rocks to stack on top of each other. I made two stacks equal in height and placed them in front of several other stacked rocks. Within 5 minutes, Hannah had a nice outdoors toilet.  She sat down and completed her business. Maybe it wasn't a "real" toilet, but I sure did impress my boys by "building a toilet out of rocks."
When Hannah was back on the trail, we proceeded to hike uphill to the overlook. We hiked inside Fort Davis National Park and went to the overlook. We looked down on the fort below, we walked around on the top of the mountain, and we sat down for a snack.  Then, we started our trek back down the mountain to our van. 
We arrived back at the van with everyone. We discovered that on our next adventure, we will take more food, less water for Hannah, and make sure that Katie is in front of the line.