3 year old does the Grouse Grind

I have to remind myself that it's Tristan's accomplishment and not mine but I can't help it and I'm totally going to brag here. Tristan doesn't really know how to brag yet and couldn't care less. As his mother, it's my duty to brag for him! :)

The Grouse Grind is a difficult hike. It's about 3km of stair climbing really. They have t-shirts at the gift shop at the top that reads "I survived the Grouse Grind." It is kind of a big deal to climb it.

We took Tristan to do the Grind with us this past weekend. As much as we wanted him to do it all on his own, we also agreed that we would not push him very much. Whenever he would be tired, we would take a break. We would even carry him a bit if he really wanted us to. We would take as long as he needed. We agreed on this because we have done the Grind before and we know it's hard.

Jean-Louis and I have not done the Grouse Grind in over four years. Back in our childless days, we used to do it almost every other weekend. This was Tristan's first Grouse Grind. The goal of any first is just to finish. That is exactly what he did :) In 2 hours 11 minutes.

It was all Tristan! We didn't carry him one bit. We had to lift him here and there since there were rocks bigger than him. In fact most of the steps he had to take were as high as his knee. If you think about how short he is, it really was an amazing accomplishment. When I say he has short legs, I mean he is SHORT. The other day he was wearing 24 month old shorts and they fit him perfectly! He's 3 1/2 years old. Imagine if you had to climb 3 kilometer of steps that were as high as your knee to as tall as you were. That's what it was like for him. He did whine on and off a bit saying "it's soooo long" but that was about it. He did great and he was quite entertained by all the hikers going up.

It was very busy on the Grind last weekend. We spotted a lot of small children going up as well. I think it's so great that families are going up with small children! Last year we would have probably had to carry Tristan up the Grind a bit. He was just 2 1/2 and was even shorter. To be honest, I wasn't sure if he was ready for the Grouse Grind this year. He sure proved us wrong! :)

The day after, he wasn't even sore. We asked him several times to make sure he was fine. I guess we didn't work him hard enough?! That kid just amazes me. Now that I think of it, he barely broke a sweat going up. I think I was sweating more because it was so hot! It was a beautiful day in Vancouver and we had a blast at the top as well. Tristan really enjoyed the bears, the lumber jack show and then afterwards, we stopped by Starbucks and the water park. It was a banner day!

As promised, we took him to the water park afterwards.