Mult-A-No-More Hike-age

This last weekend my family came up to visit me in Oregon, which of course led to Arnold Family fun times, which of course led to outdoor activities. The outdoor activity of choice this time around was a hike straight up Multnomah Falls. 

Multnomah Falls: A Success Story

The hike began with a lesson in pronunciation. Even though my parents have actually been to Multnomah Falls before, hiked this hike, and galavanted about the gift shop, they remained convinced the falls were pronounced Mult-uh-no-muh (they added an extra syllable) rather than Mult-no-muh. The knowledge of pronunciation was the last leg up I had, because after that my whole family pwned me on the hike. I don’t think I can over-exaggerate enough how vertical this hike is. It’s like scaling the side of the Empire State building...ok, maybe I successfully over-exaggerated there. But in all honesty it’s an 11 switchback hike totaling one mile overall. It was intense. And I’m out of shape. So I huffed, and I puffed, and I nearly puked my guts out while my sister zoomed ahead, my mom managed not to complain once, and my dad chanted his mantra of “I feel great!” the whole way up. Needless to say I took this family outing to mean it’s time to hit the streets and start exercising again. Thankfully what goes up must come down, and I was as cheery as the others on the decline. 

April Fools' Day

I got a tattoo! April fools :)  

I'm aware that wasn't a very convincing joke. I’ve never been a huge prankster, but I like the idea of it...in theory. My biggest issue is coming up with the ingenious pranks. My freshman year of college a few girls in my hall got into a prank war. The war included TP-ing our RA’s door to the max, putting duct tape and saran wrap in inconvenient places in the bathroom, putting peanut butter on doorknobs, and other things of mediocre mean-ness. Despite the low-levels of destruction, our hall got in trouble from the RA Army and was put on intense watch after being warned not to do any more pranks. Small school fail. 

The only other prank I can think of that I partook in was one my sister and I pulled on my dad. It was a prank of the mind and it was really more cruel than anything else (sorry  Dad!). Nicki & I decided to conference call my dad and tell him we didn’t want to go camping anymore. My family has camped every summer since I can remember and that summer we were supposed to go on a big, two-week trip around several states and almost to Canada. My dad’s reaction was ideal, I guess, but sad no less. He said he understood and that he knew it would come to this one day as we grew older. I think my sister and I were also ichatting as this was going on and decided it was too painful to continue so we lamely said “April fools” simultaneously. It wasn’t that funny. Like I said it was mostly just mean. Pranks of the psyche aren’t really pranks. 

Here’s a prank that failed for the pranksters, but turned out triumphant for the recipient--it inspires me:  

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDGlgH_ZsrY&feature=player_embedded