La semana de Mama

The week that encompasses both my birthday and Mother's Day is always a gauntlet for my husband, but he came through like a champ! One of my requests was not having to cook dinner that whole week, and we had enough celebratory dinners and social obligations that it really happened! It was wonderful. We also had pretty awesome weather for my birthday and a few other days in there. In fact, Hadley and I had a lovely post-birthday lunch stroll around the river walk, admiring the thundering falls and finding some more painted rocks. Between that, two meal dates with my love, a workout, and an Illusionists' show, it was a perfect birthday!

Then the weekend rolled around and the winds came to town. Hadley's school had a fun run scheduled for Saturday morning, despite it being 39 degrees, windy, and raining. Delightful! We did our mile and promptly headed home to warm up! (Halfway through Hadley, shivering and holding my hand, declared, "this is NOT a fun run!")

At least in the afternoon, the sun came out for our friends' BBQ. I love that our group has all of these kids that get along and are friends, too!

It was an extra special gathering because our Montana friends came into town!

The winds were still ridiculous though, and blankets were distributed around the fire pit as the temps went back into the low 40s as the sun set. Brrr!

My Mother's Day wish was for a family hike, so we headed out to our annual Cress Creek trek. The weather ended up being perfect for a hike! So thankful for that!

The kids love hopping around the creek to touch the "warm" water. It's spring fed and supposedly doesn't freeze all winter, which supplies the wild life with watercress to eat and water to drink. I always hope to see a moose at the creek, but haven't yet!

Owen was excited to find a bristly caterpillar on the bridge. (They just wrapped up their case studies on butterflies at school.)

This time we all summited beyond the main trail up a steep and rocky footpath to a large rock outcrop. Hadley needed a few breaks on the way up, but she did the whole thing herself! Best of all, she stopped complaining about her legs being tired after a snack at the top. She had a real sense of accomplishment and pride! Hopefully that bodes well for our summer hikes. 

It's hard to convey a mountain's steepness on camera, but you can see the 'real' trail down in the lower right corner.

And on our way out, look what we saw! A moose! I guess she preferred the shrubs across the river to the people-filled watercress near the trail.

We topped off La semana de Mama with a last dinner out and dessert. Perfect again!

Now back to reality. Yes, that's snow.