A day at the park.

For a long time. Well, since before Elinor was born, at least. I have had plans on taking Elinor "hiking" with me. Now that spring is approaching, it is time to start preparing. I wanted to start off small, since I don't know how much patience she will have for this sort of thing. We hope to get into a regular thing with Kurty and Frances where we can trot around outdoors, before trying out the longer hikes, but I figured that Elinor and I would start off this week by taking a test-walk through one of my lifelong favorite places. We headed off to Lower Macleay park, which, for those who don't know, is the closest in portion of Forest Park (as we all know, is the largest, forested natural area within city limits in the United States).

I took plenty of pictures (I would have taken more, but I had battery issues), which are dwelling, of course, at Our Flickr Page! So stop by and take a look. I will put a couple here though...





We started out at Lower Macleay park, one of the key areas of my childhood, and headed up the trail alongside Balch Creek. We passed the Castle and switch-backed up the hill to the Audubon Society, where Elinor had a great time, we stopped by the mews where we gazed at Julio the Great Horned Owl, then we went down the hill to the lake and looked around. Going back up the hill, Elinor got a plush House Finch that plays the house finch sound when you press it! Afterwards, we encountered a group of Audubon employees with birds on there arms, so Elinor got to meet, all close-up and with no wire cage this time, Hazel the Spotted Owl, Jack Sparrowhawk the American Peregrine and Ruby the Turkey Vulture. Great fun was had by all and Elinor learned that you can tell what time of day an owl hunts by the color of its eyes!


We then stopped for a banana before heading back down to Balch creek. Once there we did stop for pictures at the castle this time and then we headed uphill where we came across two odd things. First a big cage like nest made out of twigs and second, two little trees that someone had covered with christmas tree ornaments!

At this time, we headed out of the park and Elinor fell asleep. It was great fun and certainly something we will do more of, now that I know that she can be fine with me carting her around for two hours. I was thrilled that she had stayed awake and alert through her first "nature walk" and it makes me think she is ready for more! Since out route was a loop, the return path took us across the bridge that cross the Balch creek canyon and where our trail began, so we got some good "bird's eye views" of the beginning of our journey...

Newness abounds

Oh and yes, good changes have been afoot at the Wallingford household in the last week! First off, and quite substantial, is that Caitlin has sold her shop! This is a big event, regardless of which road it leads us down, as everything we have done in the last 4 years has always had the business in the forefront of our thoughts. So now we should really be able to focus on our family and our lives in general, without the worry of the business and the focus that it required! And in other big news, our great friend Jon and his partner Celeste had a little baby of their own this week! Little Liam Conor! You can read about the great news here at Mama ni Liam. Welcome and congratulations!

Back in this hemisphere, we also had a nice three day family weekend that began the day after Caitlin's last time behind the counter... It was quite a nice weekend, involving moving some stuff into storage to clear things out a bit, some fun quality time with Frances and her folks, a handful of movies, a nice lunch at The County Cork (where Elinor enjoyed beets, lentil soup, soda bread with butter, pickles, and some cheddar cheese) some plain old nice stress-free relaxation and then, a sudden and substantial rearranging of the home, which always seems to make it even more pleasing and comfortable for us.

Plus it involved a trip to Ikea to get, among other-things, a Rocking Moose just for Elinor (like the one that she adored at the Coffeeshop) and her very own chair, perfect for relaxing with the parents...

Oh my goodness...

Yes, I've gone and done it. Over a month without a post! Well, I'd like to say that we are just too busy enjoying Elinor to take any time out to write about it! But in short, she is doing wonderfully! We all had a couple of bouts of illness in the last couple of weeks, but all is well now! Elinor is a crawling machine and anything that dwells withing 3 feet of the floor is a potential victim of her grabby little hands! She is kept busy pursing her favorite goodies: the dog food bowl, stacks of dvd's, the remote controls, records, books, skeins of yarn, the side table, recycling... You name it, she's tried to get it! She also eats as much as she can and eats anything that she can! She likes it all, but she really seems to like things that have been spiced up a little (Bragg's Liquid Aminos, Garlicky Hummus, Toby's Tofu Pate... everything). Luckily all this crawling and eating has led to two strange things. One is that she may actually take a nap in the afternoon now, and two is that she generally sleeps about 9 hours through the night!!! I can't even tell you how life-changing that has been...

But what, you ask, has brought be out of the family blog hibernation? Wlel our good friends Trisha and Georgia at Unringing The Bell tagged us for a Then and Now, which I can't resist...

Then...



Now...