Friday, May 10, 2013

I Guess It's Not a "Half-Bad" Place to Live...

Never before in my life have circumstances aligned themselves as ideally as they have right now to give me the opportunities like I have to truly "take the time to smell the roses".  Only, for me, it should be phrased more like "take the time to spot the turtles" (or goslings, or mallard ducks, or herons, or even (gasp!) snakes)....

Or, in this case - the twin fawns on one side of the road, too fearful to follow their mom who had just bounded across the road as I approached. 

Walking and hiking are such a positive exercise for me and obviously do-able with Whitley.  I'm trying to be very wise when it comes to Whit in the backpack that it's okay to "share the load" when offered.  Having now experienced the same hikes with her and without her on my back, I can definitely recognize that her presence really ups the cardio - not to mention putting weight on an area of concern on my body.  So far, though, any detrimental issues I've faced hasn't been the weight load but rather from overheating because I'm pushing it a little too hard (pride to keep up with my hiking buddy).

On Wednesday, I got a double duty adventure opportunity.  In the morning, I went for a walk that takes you right next to the Delta Ponds.  Dawn, Whitley, and I were nearly stopped in our tracks by the family of Canadian Geese - and then the family of Mallard Ducks - that crossed our paths.  SOOO adorable!


Then, after school, Jonna and I took our kiddos on the same hike that I had gone with Alysha the previous week.   Annika is only 5 and a half, but as I joked with my Michele, due to her amazing athletic family heritage - she's probably already at an 8th grader hiking level.  So cute and impressive.

Pretty, pretty!

Jonna and I did take turns, though I have no pics to prove that I ever carried her....


I think Whitley is getting used to the whole backpack idea and really enjoying it.  She chatted for much of the trip and then started her "groaning" which is her indicator that she's about to fall asleep.  (Cutest sounds ever...).  We opted to protect her from the sun with Annika's sweater and that extra cozy around her face was all it took for her to fall asleep.



On Thursday, Christy and I set up a long overdue date to hike another branch of the Ridgeline Trail (one that neither of us had taken).

 

The majority of the trek was shaded - much of it uphill on the way there, downhill on the way back - and beautiful.  


There I am....and to be fair, I don't think this lighting showed my face as red as it felt.   Whitley looks pretty content, wouldn't you say?  This time, she fell asleep once she got back in the carseat. =)

Finally, today was my even-longer-overdue date with Lisa.  No pics of the two of us (my bad), but I took plenty of the scenery around us as we explored the Eastside of the Riverbank Path System.  I need to take this map and the Ridgeline map and start highlighting what paths I've taken and with whom.   I'm definitely learning a lot as I go...

Lisa and I had a lot of fun meandering paths and switchbacks with Whitley in the jogger.  We had a lot to catch up on and it was the perfect path and morning to do just that.


No risk of Whitley passing on any of our secrets...she spent most of the trip asleep.

These are the kinds of locations that I feel like those folks with the gift of photography would eat up as backdrops....especially with the right light filtering through.  So pretty.



I've got one more - VERY SPECIAL - blogpost that I still need to put together, but for now, it's bedtime.  We've arrived at Michele's house with the next two days being jam-packed with Webfoot volleyball, volunteering at said event (grrrr!), driving back to Eugene for a Marist Auction, then returning (on Mother's Day?!!!) to repeat the volleyball experience on Sunday.

I've already got a bit of an attitude about the "hectic-ness" of this coming weekend, so I really need to go to sleep.   5:30am is going to be coming way too fast!

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