Hiking in Sky Meadows

It has certainly been unseasonably hot these past few days! We took advantage and went on a hike, it turned out to be a beautiful fun day for all of us. We set out for Sky Meadows State Park on Sunday and did a hike that we did last November with the girls. This year the girls did considerably more hiking. Luli did super, she hiked at least 80% of the hike, and Fiona did pretty well for her age. When the hike was too steep (up or down) Oscar and I carried the girls. Luli chose to go with me in the Ergo (and remarkably she and I were very comfortable) and Fiona in the Sherpani. Fiona took a nice nap on the downward hike but that was it for the sleep that would be had - more on that later!

We enjoyed a lovely picnic on the hillside. It was beautiful to watch the leaves float down from the trees and be surrounded by the beautiful golden hues of Autumn. We did a family photo, which I think came out great and could possibly be our holiday card this year...ironically, it's the same place we took last year's picture! Just a beautiful surrounding.

At the end of the hike we were rewarded with several treats. A local winery had a free wine tasting, very yummy! And they gave away some winery coupons...which we plan to use very soon. A second lovely treat was homemade ice cream! Luli chose chocolate, Fiona chose orange cream, I chose pumpkin and Oscar had fresh peach. All of it was so yummy! I loved the pumpkin and Fiona's peach was pretty awesome. While we enjoyed all of our edible treats we laid on our picnic blanket and listened to some fiddle and guitar music. Luli unfortunately missed when the played the Bumble Bee song! Oscar also took the girls into the hay and barrel play area, it started to get rowdy in there so their playtime wasn't super long. While they were playing I indulged in something I NEVER get to do...RELAXATION! I laid down on our picnic blanket which was under this beautiful tree with yellow leaves, I watched the yellow leaves with the amazing blue sky behind and listened to the music. It was an amazing feeling to just lay there and enjoy the beauty.

The girls really had lovely attitudes the entire day which made it an even more enjoyable experience. Like I said earlier there was no napping and while Luli dealt pretty well with that, Fiona did not. Her socks were really annoying her in the car and she went into a lovely tantrum about it. Oscar and I had had enough so he took the remaining sock off, figuring removal of annoying object will stop the situation (or at least tame it). Clearly this was the wrong move, because it has the opposite effect. Fiona went into the possessed by the devil tantrum which then led to the inevitable vomit...lovely! The girls got home, ate dinner and went to bed 2 hrs early (but slept until 7:15am!). Oscar and I enjoyed a quiet dinner and went to bed early also!

This picture is pretty much how cooperative the girls were at taking a nice picture together. The rest of the pictures came out really beautiful, so I will get around to adding them into an album and linking them up on the side...all these things to do!