As it turns out, Phoebe does not have a stomach bug. This is lucky on two counts (1) because stomach bugs are awful and (2) because she basically slept on top of me last night.
We started taking down our Christmas tree this morning, finishing up with the help of Rachel and Miriam after Grandpa dropped them off. They got to de-decorate two Christmas trees today because they also helped with Grandpa and Darla's tree!
Phoebe was happy to have her big sisters home and engaged Miriam in a balloon fight:
When the tree was down, Andrew took the youngest four to the basement to tidy up and I took the big girls outside to take down the lights out there. When we were finished we went to Autrey Mill to check out their hiking trails—they boast "46-acre preserve with 3 miles of trails," but honestly the trails were frustrating to follow. Everywhere we went things seemed to be closed down. But we wandered around enough for us, I guess. We'll have to go back later when the visitor's center is open because I know Benjamin really wants to see the animals inside (reptiles and things). Here he is with one of the goats outside:
And here he is climbing a tree:
Phoebe was so excited to go for a hike. Andrew tried to convince her that she could walk for the hike since it was only a short one (the trail I thought we would take was purportedly 1 mile, but I don't think we walked even that far), but she insisted that a hike wasn't a hike without her hiking backpack.
She's really getting too big for that thing, so we'll have to train her into using her own two feet one of these days. We made a goal in 2024 to go on 12 hikes. We did not make it on that many hikes. But maybe we'll be better about getting out into the wilderness this year...you never know!
Here's Alexander climbing the same tree Benjamin was on:
He's wearing Zoë's sweater because he didn't bring a sweater at all!
Luckily I grabbed a few extra sweaters on my way out the door because I thought it had gotten cooler than it looked outside. It's tricky—because the last couple of days it's been so nice, right in the middle of the day, that you can go outside in a t-shirt and feel comfortable. But the minute the sun starts dropping it gets surprisingly chilly (except that it's literally January 1, so not too surprising, I guess).
That purple sweater of Zoë's is one of the extra ones that I grabbed. These kids were quite easy to spot in the woods in their purple, yellow, and orange:
These people blended in with their surroundings a little better:
Here's Zoë on the lookout for...something:
When the hike was over, Phoebe remembered that Daddy had promised that everyone could have some hot chocolate when we got home. "With marshmallows?" she wanted to know.
"With marshmallows," he told her.
"Hooray!" she cheered.
No comments:
Post a Comment