Sunday was just too beautiful to spend indoors. So we loaded up the babe, the stroller, and some sunscreen. Turns out the stroller wasn't needed because Hallie didn't enjoy "off-roading" so much. But I will get to that later. ;)
It seems as though Sundays are always the day that I beg Riley to do something fun outside. Vampires would never fit in with Hal and I because we crave the sunlight! Luckily it took no convincing today to get the hubs out of the house. My list of wants included: swinging and walking. We decided to spend the afternoon at Boiling Springs. Although I had been there several times before for races or family reunions, I had never actually understood why it was called Boiling Springs. Well today Riley gave me a geology lesson. Oh yeah, and Hallie too. The water actually looks like it's boiling....huh, who would have thunk it? ;0
The sunscreen application is a must before our little Irish-skinned gal can begin any activity outdoors. She doesn't seem to mind so I make sure to take my time and get every last roll and crevice. We headed down the walking trail path with our babe strapped in. After five minutes of bumpy trails she had had enough. I still don't know if it was the fact that the terrain was less than smooth, if she just wanted a better view, or if she simply wanted to be held. I'm leaning toward the latter. Either way, the girl was literally ALL SMILES all afternoon long!
After we took off in the stroller Hallie quickly began questioning her footwear....
"Seriously mom? Jellies for trail walking?"
Since she wanted to be Ms. Independent we made sure to let her guide the way...
"Follow me"
She didn't get us lost because we actually made our way to the river...
Her little self was dying to explore her surroundings so we let her do just that....
I'd be lying if I didn't say I was a bit (ok, maybe a lot) nervous about her sitting amongst the grass and grabbing trees and sticks, but she had a blast and what better way to learn?!
Ok, so maybe jellies weren't the best choice of shoe for trail walking. The girl proved her point in this walk with dad....
After playing in the fallen tree trunks and gathering sticks, she found that they make pretty good drumsticks....
So her and Riley started a two-man band....
"Try to stay on beat with me dad"
As I snapped photos of my precious little girl I couldn't believe how big she looked. She is definitely conditioned to sit for the camera...but better than that, she is always ready with a huge smile or silly look on her face....
"What do you expect? I have a camera in my face 24/7"
There are no words to describe the fun we had this afternoon. Just a simple place...but it was so much more than that. It was a bunch of firsts for our Hal gal. I love getting to be her mommy!!
No greater love
She had us cracking up with her silly giggles of excitement. Riding on Riley's shoulders was an easy way to get a big grin...
Picture of perfection
As always, Riley got us a bit lost and wanted to keep walking until we found a clearing....so I quickly reminded him of his track record with pathfinding. He actually joked around and threw some pebbles down on the ground to mark our path Hansel and Gretel style. No sign of our pebble path so we decided to turn around and backtrack our way back to the car instead of trekking any further....
"We should have tried some bread crumbs dad"
She was a trooper and put up with us as we strapped her back in her carseat with the promise of more fun to come. Fun at the park that is....
We weren't sure how much fun (if any) she would have sliding and swinging. It turns out she LOVED everything about the park!!!
"BEST DAY EVER!"
Giggles galore on the swings...
She was full of zeal today and even tried out some rock climbing...
"Alllll.....by....myself..."
"Ok, maybe with a little help"
And the huge smiles continued when we introduced her to the slide....
Reached the peak
"Do we haaaavvvveeee to leave?"
Yes sweetheart. We had to stop swinging. I guess it's a sign you are old when you can't swing without feeling like you are going to be sick. Yep, next time we head to the park I guess I'll have to pop some Dramamine. To top off our perfect afternoon we randomly ran into Uncle Luke and Aunt Katie...they were out cruising in the Mustang thanks to the perfect weather. Hallie checked out the duckies with Uncle Luke and did some walking before we were ready to go. By the time we had reached the highway to head back to town our nature girl was passed out in the backseat. :)
Our hearts are so full. Overflowing in fact. Hallie Grace, you love nature and nature loves you back!
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