Seems like the summer is flying by!  We’ve been busy, busy, busy with our every day lives but we try to find time to enjoy the great outdoors, which is — after all — one of the main reasons we live here.  Today we checked out a trail we hadn’t visited before.  It was gorgeous and the pictures fail to capture the beauty of it but at least they will help us remember (and give you a little taste of this magical place)…

You may have noticed that Mia is wearing a dress.  We had her dressed in more practical  clothes, but then she saw her dresses while I was grabbing something out of her closet as we were trying to make it out the door…and then she INSISTED on wearing this dress. We even brought a change of clothes and tried to convince her to change at the trailhead but you can see that didn’t happen.  And besides, why not go hiking in a long dress?  Dresses, in general, do cramp her style a bit when she is trying to climb EVERYTHING but it really worked out OK.  It is funny how particular she is about some things and we are endlessly entertained watching her personality emerge.

Here is another example: Early this morning, before heading outside to let the chickens out and check on the garden, Papa brought her a pair of shoes to put on.  She told him those shoes were too dirty and flatly refused to wear them!  Ha!

We always try to time our hikes so that we can be back home BEFORE nap time but it seems that about 20-30 minutes in the carrier is all it takes to put her to sleep (even if normal nap time is hours away).  She slept some on our walk and, although she didn’t have a proper nap later at home, she did go to bed early (whew!).  When she is not sleeping in her carrier, she is pointing out everything she sees, and practicing numbers/letters/sing-song talking, talking, talking.

Speaking of numbers…have I mentioned that she is counting to 10 now?  She has been doing that consistently for the past 2 weeks.  And every time she counts something (stars on a page, books on the table, butterflies flying, blueberries in her hand), there are always 10.

Besides counting, Mia has hit several other milestones lately and I’ll do a post with photos and details of those soon…as soon as I find a bit more time.