On Monday, we made a Labor Day effort, and per suggestion from our outdoorsy friends, we drove out to Hanging Rock state park for a few hikes. Just us, as a family.
It was great.
When my alarm went off at 7am for me to wake up and put together a picnic, I came very close to rolling over and going back to bed. Who wants to wake up early on a holiday? Luckily, by repeating the mantra "Memories for my family. I am helping to create memories for my family", I was able to wake up and prepare food for our two-hour journey towards the mountains.
One of the honest to goodness reasons we are not more outdoorsy is because we lack the proper equipment. At Hanging Rock state park there were oodles of hikes, some easy and some not so easy, and all we own for Gigi is a Baby Bjorn that our kind friends gave us. It sure beat the situation of the poor woman who we saw hauling her sleeping dead-weight 3 year old-ish looking child up the mountain, but the Bjorn was not created for hikes. If we want to continue being outdoorsy people, it would definitely be worth considering a frame pack for our chunker!
Hiking is a lot of work. Giovanna fell asleep for a good leg of the hike up to Hanging Rock.
Finally we made it to the top! It was really a beautiful view, looking out over endless trees and shades of green and blue.
We sat under this tree to eat our picnic. The land was nearly perfectly untouched as far as the eye could see. We had an apple in our bag, and we gave a piece to Gigi, who gnawed on it ravenously and licked it all over. It looks like she is almost ready for real food!
And so, with a simple day trip out to Hanging Rock State park we proved to ourselves that we can do outdoorsy things. I'm not sure if we are ready for a committed relationship with the outdoors - for example, camping and such - but we've definitely made it to first base, and we're interested to see where this relationship will take us.
1 comment:
here is my totally unsolicited advice...are you ready?
The Bjorn was a horrible invention. It was made to destroy backs. I really recommend using an Ergo Carrier. It's super duper quadruple expensive. I'm not sure why. It's over $100, maybe you can get one used for less than $100. But it is worth it and I'm so cheap it hurts a little to say it but it is the absolute truth. We've been lugging Maria in Bahia with our Ergo and we lugged her in Sao Paulo for hours on end. We used it in all our hikes in Yosemite and it was a million times better than a frame hiking back back (we own one too). Seriously, get an Ergo it distributes the weight so nicely that you won't even notice the difference of having her on you.
the end.
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