Hiking with children is fun! You travel at the speed of the slowest walker so you have lots of time to talk and be together. Everyone splits up in different groups all day and you have many opportunities just to listen to your children talk.
You can watch the kids love on and encourage each other. When Megan struggled the first day and was going sooooo sllloooowwwwlly, Mark started to make up a story about a backpacking princess. They continued making up the story for the rest of the trip and Megan did not have as much trouble keeping up.
When the hills caused problems, or someone fell and got hurt, there was always someone there to encourage them-not just mom or dad. Once we got to camp, the kids worked together to finish what needed to get done, so they could play-together. When the kids crawled into their tents, exhausted, we had to remind them to stop talking and go to sleep.
There are so many wonderful family vacations. But my favorites are those where we leave the normal, and just enjoy being a family.
P.S. Mark did not carry Megan during our hike, he wanted to see if he could carry her and both packs. Megan walked the whole trip, though Allan did carry her backpack for about 10 minutes.