Spontaneous hike

Part of my ankle rehab is hiking.  I haven't made the time to take the kids hiking a lot since we've lived here.  Sometimes the drive to Boulder to find a good trailhead is just too much.  However I was feeling motivated this morning and was desperate to smell mountain air and see mountain trees.   Daxton and I drove up to NCAR to hike while the other three were at school and make the most of our morning.  A cold front had moved through so I had no idea how cold it was going to be up there.  I bundled the both of us up and hoped for the best.  The weather was actually beautiful.  It wasn't too cold.  The sun was shining.  And the mountain air was everything I was needing.  As we hiked we practiced Daxton's animal sounds.  I realized as the two of us hiked that I don't talk to him nearly as much as I talked to Cambrie at that same age.  Very rarely is it just the two of us and I spent the hike pointing out birds, rocks, pinecones, trees, chipmunks, and a stream.  It was really fun.  

Towards the end I also tried to introduce him to the fine art of eating snow.  It was really hard to bend my arm far enough to put the snow in his mouth and the sleeves of his coat were too long for his hands to do the job, so only a few chunks actually made it in his mouth.  

When we were nearly back to the car I let him climb out of the backpack and walk around by himself for a bit.  The snowclothes are all too big so they were dragging and he was a bit uncoordinated, but he didn't mind.  He even smiled for me while I took his picture!  I'm hoping I feel motivated again soon to do that again, because it was really nice.