An afternoon hike or a mountain climb?

Robby has been working hard on getting ready for his dissertation proposal, and he decided he needed a little break with the family. He thought it would be fun for us to go and hike Camelback Mountain. He looked it up online, and there were a few hikes to choose from. He liked the sound of the Summit Trail Hike. It was about 1.2 miles long which didn't sound to bad to him (never mind that it climbs 1, 200 ft over that 1.2 miles that equates to almost 30% grades on average and the hike we chose was labeled difficult).

So all four of us set off at about 6:15p to hopefully reach the summit and return by sundown 7:34p.

Jenna thought the first part of the hike was great, and wanted to "do-it herself."
Little Robby wanted to set a faster pace which left me in the middle.
Here we are stopping for a breather.

Click to see a short clip of our "Mountain Climbing Jenna" in action.
Did we make the summit already? No, this was just a nice view part way up the mountain, and someone offered to take a picture of all of us.
If you can't see the circular marker clearly, it reads 3/8 mi. Robby's expression reads, "What! I thought we had walked about twice that already!" And he thought he was ready for the 7-10 mile Grand Canyon hike planned for November. Luckily there is still time to train.
Around the corner from the marker we meet the mountain. Let me make a disclaimer now... I like to hike, I mean casually on prepared trails. I am not the person you will see boulder hopping or rock climbing (unless I am strapped securely). At this point I felt that I had met my match. I have a fear of falling and broken bones. Looking up this steep incline of bald rock I realized this was no longer my sort of hike, nor did I think it a good idea for us to take the kids (especially Jenna) up this incline. I wasn't as scared of going up as I was of coming down. And so here we stood looking up and watching experienced hikers scale this mountain one after another. Robby tells me, "It's probably not as bad as it looks!" "You're kidding, right? You aren't going to take Jenna up that, are you?" I reply. He replied in the affirmative and off Chap, Dad and Jenna went. I followed cautiously behind. Somewhere up by the handrail, it got especially steep and I finally called it. I certainly did not feel comfortable going up this way with Jenna, let alone watch Chap go higher and higher. Let's just say that my motherly insincts kicked in and I told Robby that I didn't want him to go any further. He listened and down we went, only to discover when we got to the bottom that Little Robby had gotten himself stuck near the top.
So Jenna and I stood at the bottom and watched as Dad climbed up to save him.
Eventually we all came down, a little disappointed that we didn't make it to the top of the hike (even if we still had .7 mi to go). We read later that once you get to the top of this climb seen here there is one other climb that is more difficult up higher. I think I am now resigned to the fact that I will never know what it looks like at the top of Camelback Mountain. Maybe Robby can find another hiking buddy and succeed in climbing to the top.
Finally, down we came to the bottom. Well, after a hike that was less than a mile and got our hearts going, I think we're ready for the Grand Canyon, don't you?