Saturday, June 28, 2008

Daily Adventures

Last summer I found the perfect walk to take every day with Chloe. I would strap her to my back in the backpack and go walk to Windsor Lake, around it, and then home. I assumed it was just a couple of miles or so- turns out it's 4.1 miles for the whole trip (thanks to my sister-in-law Bonnie for tracking that one online for us). A good walk. Anyway, this summer, Bonnie and I decided we were going to try to do it every day and so far we've been doing great. There are a few more kiddies tagging along this time- Bonnie has a double stroller for her boys and I put Linus in Chloe's old front carrier and Chloe goes in the stroller and that has been working well (by the way, for those of you who don't know, Craig's brother Brian and his wife Bonnie and their boys, Ethan [3] and Kaleb [20 months] moved into the basement here at the house, adding to the ever growing "Ellingson circle" here in Windsor). Here are some pictures of our adventures thus far:

Setting out from the house with the crew...


There are lots of pelicans on Windsor Lake- the kids love to point them out. Kaleb shouts "Pee-kin!" over and over and Chloe signs "bird" with her hands and screeches a lot when she sees them.

Stopping for a snack.


Linus just mostly sleeps through the whole thing.



There are these gian carp that swim in the water under the bridges and the kids like to look at those too.


Chloe trying to sign "fish" after we showed her how. Not sure she really got it, but she likes to point at them anyway.





It's great fun every day- I think Bonnie and I both look forward to it. Well, at least once we get ready to go- before then I'm sure both of us wake up trying to come up with excuses not to go, but we do it and though the walk is not too difficult, we get a good work out in the hot sun and the kids are already in the routine of it every day. I'm sure Linus will enjoy it more once he's old enough to really realize what is going on. :-)

1 comment:

Nathan and Bonnie said...

Ohh your walk sounds so neat! isn't it the best when you have someone to go with? I had walking buddies in Portland, and we went on the most BEAUTIFUL walks (then again, every walk in Portland is beautiful to me!)!! Oh, and I LOVE your picture at the top of your blog page. You look gorgeous! And the other 3 people in the photo look really good too! :-)