An Adventurous Hike

This past week my husband took time off from work so we could have a little mini vacation. We hung out with my siblings at the Colfax Railroad Days vending which was pretty fun, and then celebrated my brother's 20th birthday on Monday before popping off a half hour's drive to stay at a hotel for three days. On the first day we relaxed, settled into the room, enjoyed the baby's suspicious looks as she tentatively explored the room, and then went for a walk around Historic Downtown. We even stopped at a fun little candy shop and tried some new treats.

On the second day, we loaded into the car after breakfast and went hiking along the American River. The baby was really excited about our outing.

She was also interested in the camera.

Until she discovered her new sneakers.

When we came across a very interesting divided oak, we set her up in the fork for a quick photo session and she was not at all happy about that. Daddy sweet talked her into relaxing.

After that she was more interested in looking at the moss than in taking pictures.

They still looked really cute together though.

The baby was frustrated at the start of the walk because she wanted to walk and it was too steep for her. We had another pause when we found this lovely twisted manzenita bush.

And of course took plenty of pictures.

Daddy was having a good day out in the beautiful woods with his girls.

He had to get some pictures of them so I got the baby.

She started to squirm though so we had to keep walking.

The trail was dusty in places and very smooth in others. It was narrow, usually only traveled on by mountain bikers or hikers in single file. We passed one guy jogging. In a few spots the trail was steep and had sharp rocks sticking up but we navigated it all fairly easily.

We loved seeing all the twisty old bushes along the trail.

Some even curved up and over it in an enchanting archway.

This made for the ideal photo.

Or maybe two.

We passed a sign marking a junction of our trail with a longer one. We thought that was pretty cool.

After climbing a particularly steep rocky bit and doing some looping around, we found a little creek we'd heard at the head of the trail. It was so calm and peaceful right there, so cool and very lush. The green was such a welcome sight when everywhere else is all dead and brown.

We took some more pictures.

And Daddy climbed down onto some rocks. The baby loves the water and was fascinated by it. But we didn't let her play in it.

After chatting with a friendly mountain biker for awhile, we continued up the trail a bit. It was smoother and flatter so we put the baby down and coaxed her to walk on her own without holding hands. She had a lot of fun doing that and ran around.

We spotted lots of interesting little things, like these odd things hanging from a branch. They looked like a lot of dandelion seed clusters.

The baby had by then tripped about three times so she decided it was safer to hold hands again. Over some of the steeper bits she asked to be carried and we happily obliged.

On the way back, it started to sprinkle and did so for a refreshing {although terribly brief} twenty minutes.

We love nothing better than to be out in the woods for a walk on a cool cloudy day and have it lightly drizzle on us. It makes us so happy.

We set the baby up in a different oak on the way back. She wasn't too certain about that but she knew I was right there behind her holding her steady.

She smiled for her Daddy.

Being the rather big boy he is sometimes, Husband had to climb into the tree for himself.

And he wanted his baby too.

She was a lot more comfortable in his arms.

But she didn't really want to hold still and smile for Mummy.

He took a couple pictures of us to make up for it.

This is the trail sign we passed when we started the hike.

We had to walk back down the hill to our car which was considerably easier than walking up the hill had been.

Husband took lost of pictures while Mummy tried to keep up with the baby who was trying to race gravity and run down the hill as fast as her short legs would go.

Daddy eventually noticed that we'd be a cute picture running down the hill {well, she ran, I walked} so he took a picture and a video of us. The baby wore herself out but she didn't want to get back in the car and go home. We swung by the library that same day and she decided that the puzzle pieces in the kids' area were great for subtly licking. Daddy had to make her stop and go track Mummy down in the poetry section.