May 1st, 2006. With temps not rising above 70F/21C this weekend, the family spent lots of time outside. Amy and Jackson started early Sunday morning by walking/biking to Main Street shortly after 6am while Ben and I slept in. Amy thought that we should go on a hike while the weather is still nice. We decided to hike to the top of Papa's Mountain behind my grandmother's house in Virginia. Emma usually gets to go along on this type of outing because she enjoys them the most, but this time we picked her little sister Cassie. Zorro sticks pretty close to home because he gets car sick and has crooked little front legs that hurt after long walks. I was so glad that we took Cassie too, because it was the first time in seven years we managed to get a good photo of her. We walked along Pigg Creek, past our cabin, then up, up, up through the woods to the top of Papa's Mountain. Our stick obsessed two year old almost went into stick overload. He carried several different collections during the walk, but only one big one made it all the way home with us. He hauled and lugged it as far as he could, then turned it over to mom and dad to carry the rest of the way.
Does
anyone know what kind of tree this is?
It was growing on the very top of the mountain and smelled wonderful. The
lavender blooms hung upside down like bells from shoots that pointed straight
up. We had never seen anything like it before and my grandmother didn't
know what it was either.
Being the smart, well-organized mom that Amy is, she put a
complete change of clothes for each kid in the backpack, along with snacks and
water. Being the not-so-smart dad that I am,
just
before leaving the van, I took the clothes out to make room for my camera bag.
I just didn't see the point in carrying a backpack full of clothes all day. So that preface takes you to
this photo of Jackson poking around a tadpole pool with a stick while Cassie
drinks water and cools her paws. About twenty seconds after the photo was
taken, Cassie jumps to the other side of the puddle, jerking Jackson, who
was holding her leash, completely off the ground. The poor kid landed
square in the middle of the puddle. He was completely soaked, muddy and
freaking out because he thought leaches were on him (we saw one last summer
while swimming in the creek
next to the cabin).
Amy at this point was probably proud of herself for being so prepared, but soon
found herself saying "What do you mean we don't have any other clothes, I packed
extra clothes." Yep, more than one trip out with dad has ended with a kid
dressed like this before it
was over.
And on another note, everyone should go watch Pink's Dear Mr. President video. At least Pink and Neil Young don't have to worry about being boycotted by country music fans for speaking their mind.
