Hike #1: Rood Bridge Park

Here's the before picture of our first hike of the year.  And our first hike ever, since I didn't take them the last two years.  I had no idea how they would respond to hiking so I picked a very easy trek for us at a local park.  I bought Eliza some tennis shoes for the occasion, and we did lots of prep and talking about what you wear when you go hiking, what you bring with you, whether you pick the flowers you see, etc.  Zay was pretty excited; Eliza was her normal self.  Neither of them were very big on the whole "look at the camera" idea, and I'm okay with that.  I don't want to be one of those moms who is so worried about getting the perfect picture that the actual experience you're trying to capture never really happens.  

For this hike I let Eliza walk the whole time even though most of the trail was paved.  She had lots of fun and fell lots of times.  She also wanted to be held a lot, especially when we ventured onto the unpaved part.  That got me plenty dirty because her muddy shoes would rub off all over my jeans.  I do have an old hand-me-down backpack carrier for her so I might need to try that out and see if I like it.  And if I can get her in and out of it on my own.  Lucky for me she still hasn't hit 20 pounds so I should be able to manage her on my back for a couple of miles.

Zay got kind of nervous when we were on the unpaved trail, I think because it was deeper into the "forest" and it got darker.  He is also scared of bugs, flies, etc. and there were lots of them.  But he enjoyed discovering slugs, and a crooked tree, and a red log.

This picture is in response to "Zay, go get our sister so I can take a picture of you two" which translates in his head to "Go tackle Eliza so she can't move, and make sure neither of you are facing the camera."

Here's Zay trying again to get Eliza to pose for a picture.