After our near-death experience on Gyle Rd we could have gone two ways with it: we could have resorted back to our old way of thinking and admit- it's... just... not... sensicle (that's a word, I'm sure of it - it's a combination of sensible and something else that ends in 'cle') at any rate; or, we could seek out a more scenic, "safe" route. Well, we did the later and went to walk the River Trail at the Diversion Dam here in Red Bluff.
It started out well enough, we pulled up to this marvelous sight welcoming us, beckoning us to come "exercise" ourselves by it...
Going to walk the river trail with my Mom and our small village. :) loving the 86 degree weather!
... then we got out of the car and the downward slope began.
Having decided to NOT put poor Abigail in her straight jacket and strap her to me we opted instead to put both of the babies in strollers. Issue numero uno arrives-Abby is asleep and in case you weren't well versed on baby etiquette - you NEVER wake a sleeping baby, ESPECIALLY a princess such as Abigail. ;D So my mom SWEARS she saw the mom from 18 Kids and Counting (or 24 rather, whatever it's up to these days) "hang" her baby car seat from the handles of the umbrella stroller. Despite my immediate response of, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??!?!?!??!" I decided to play along. I helped for all of about 4 minutes, until I realized I hadn't the patience for that task and left my mom to her own devices, which are many because fast forward to approximately 30 minutes later (according to Dion's prayer later that night) and Abby was strapped to the umbrella stroller, by what I'm still not sure, BUT the important part remained... she was still in her car seat AND still asleep.
Off we walked, across the road, down the hill to the paved trail. My mom and I were pleased with ourselves. After all, this was day number 2 of us being motivated to get motivated, which also made this day one whole day more of following through than any previous attempts we had made at getting motivated.
Addie and Savannah and Dion were a stone's throw ahead of us pushing Livvy in her stroller when they came upon a large sign. Now generally I would encourage the girls to read signs and things around us so that they are more aware of what's going on and also for practice. Not this sign. This sign I could have stood for them to zoom pass. However, as the "Guidebook to Being a Successful Child" CLEARLY states, "You MUST NOT do what your assigned adult would like you to do WHEN they want you to do it. INSTEAD you should wait until the opportunity arises to do WHAT they wanted you to do once but instead WHEN they'd rather you NOT do it." (i.e. passing up bathroom opportunities, remembering your mom's conversation in the car two weeks ago when she WASN'T talking to your but forgetting to tell your teacher something your mom told you to tell her this morning, etc. etc.) Now I knew what this sign said cause I've been there before and I've read it (yes, SOMEtimes I practice what I preach). So I kept walking. But the girls are frantically trying to explain that the sign says "RIGHT THERE!!" to beware of Mountain Lions, Snakes, and something else I can't remember what. Surprisingly it was not the kids who were the first to ask whether this was true or not, it was my mom's shaky voice I heard ask, "Uhh, are there really mountain lions around here?" "Yep!" I said, attempting to sound as carefree as possible when admitting that there have been mountain lion sightings in the area from time to time. But I kept walking, figuring like tiny little sponges the girls would move on to soaking up the next thing soon enough. We discussed how long these trails were and checked out all the water markings from where the water had risen to when the river flooded in the weeks before. Before long we came to the "woods". Now knowing that my girls are the extremists that they are (not reeeeeal positive where they got that from?) they practically wanted to use the lint from their pockets as bread crumbs so that we could find our way back to the car despite everything being CLEARLY marked and seemingly oblivious to the fact that the trees, for the most part, were only on one side of us. Being the brave Mommy that I am I quickly entered the "forest" without slowing my stride. We were attempting to make this time count so my mom and I kept the pace up as much as possible. This only led to the girls finding something, slowing to check it out or pick it up, then racing to catch up with us to inquire about said item. Orrr, running ahead to check stuff out and then shanghai'ing us once we caught up.
The first discovery came from Addie. My mom and I overheard her sharing with Savannah that she had found a 'lily pad'. What's the fuss? you might ask. Well I'll tell you the fuss! This was no ordinary lily pad. THIS lily pad grew in the ground, next to grass, and it was short, with a thick stem coming straight up through the middle. A new species of "lily pads" indeed! It wasn't long before the girls were picking "bamboo". No, we haven't traveled to East Asia, we are still in lil' ol' Red Bluff. Much like the lily pads these "bamboo stalks" were nestled amongst the grass, very small and thin, and easily plucked out of the ground by the girls as they ran past. I don't know about you but I'd like to see a Panda bear get full off of these tiny little shards of "bamboo". Now I let this go on for a bit-figured it was harmful enough. I found amusement in the girls ripping along the path shouting to each other that there was more and more bamboo, and to, "Look how big of one I found!!" This was until Savannah came close enough to me that I could see the sticky milk dripping out of the ends of the "bamboo". I quietly said, "uhhh, those aren't bamboo, their milk weeds, and you're going to get that sticky stuff all over your hands and you won't have anything to get it off with." I'm pretty sure her collection hit the ground before I had even finished my sentence. Seconds later, Savannah shouted "Guyyyyyys! Those aren't bamboo!!" It didn't seem to slow their stride. Addie dropped her collection as well and moved on to the next thing. My mom and I decided to leave her recently discovered "lily pads" alone.
Now Dion had said a couple times that she had to use the restroom (see above rule). But what was I suppose to do? Pull a porta potty out of my back pocket? I knew there was a fork coming up in the trail where there might be more foot traffic than we had encountered so far, so I tried explaining to Dion that she might want to squat behind a tree before we started coming across people. Needless to say she didn't listen, attempting to hold it I noticed her steps getting shorter but at the same time quicker? This was the potty dance in motion. And on the occasion there would be a rustling in the jungle branches and although most likely it was simply a bird the girls had a great time conjuring up what it might actually be. A few times the rustling was rather loud which really startled the girls, this wasn't beneficial in the least to Dion's need to use the facilities. Nearing the intersection where three paths crossed there was a bench and a few mile markers, but just before this point there was a slight dip in the trial and a much thicker covering of "forest", which caused the trail to seem darker and a bit more eerie. Enter my mother. My sweet, loving, sensitive, best-grammie-ever mother. The same one who loves to get cheap laughs out of scaring people. The timing was perfect. Just as Dion jumped from a quick, louder than before, rustling of the trees my mom grabbed her from behind and growled, "What are you doing." I'm surprised Ms. Dion didn't water the trail right there where she stood. She scolded Grammie and caught up to me where I was waiting just past the bench. Well while my mom and I were discussing which direction we wanted to go and how much farther we were going to be able to make it, Dion must've decided that that scare put her over the edge. While looking at my mom I see behind her a couple of people coming up the trail on bikes. I turned to inform the girls that people were coming and to stay off the trail while my mom and I decided what our next move was going to be, aka caught our breath. Once turned, my gaze met the instantly widened eyes of Miss Dion, who has, with obviously no other options at her disposal, decided to squat all of 14 inches from the cement trail. She shouted, "WHAT!?!?? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!?!?!?" I immediately burst into crying/hysterical laughing. She stood up, while hunched over grabbing at her shorts, and waddled towards the stroller I was pushing. I'm in hysterics. Like bent over slapping my knee laughing! So is my mom. Dion positioned herself in front of the car seat, that was mysteriously still staying in it's place on the umbrella stroller, in hopes that it was going to provide her with some sort of privacy. It did not. The people were going to be riding their bikes right past her no matter where she stood. She shouted, "Help me! What are you doing!??!? HELPPPP!!!" lol. At this point I'm worried if I'll need some sort of resuscitation, and became concerned because I knew my mom would be of no help cause she was laughing just as hard... and pointing! Yes, we had deliriously resorted to pointing and laughing at my frantic 7-year-old daughter!! She yanked her shorts up just moments before the intruders passed, and although in the end she got a chuckle out of it she definitely did NOT appreciate our laxidazy approach to helping her. lol. Onward!!
As my mom and I are approaching the completion of mile number 2 I mention to her that my legs are feeling super warm. (for those of you who exercise regularly --- shut it). My mom quickly informs me to be thankful that I have capri's on and that at least all the heat gets to go somewhere! She has long pants on and her heat is just bouncing off her pants back onto her legs and meeting up with the other heat that is coming off her legs again and together they are making baby heat so now her legs are three times hotter than mine! lol. We hit mile 2 and turned around... now at this point in the story I would like to pause and offer a heart felt apology to my horses whom I NEVER allowed to run back to their stable or barn or trailer or gate or whatever it was... cause the fact that we were now returning to our car where our water bottles were (lesson learned on that one) and a seat, and the prospect of home and shower and couch were just a mere 2 mile trail walk ahead, I wanted to run! Apparently the girls had gotten a bit tired of "discovering" new plant life along the trail and on the return trip decided they would discover things from the Animal Kingdom instead. Enter Savannah. Her first attempt at finding a caterpillar was a failure when she ruled out the possibility of it turning into a butterfly and instead admitted it was most likely just a worm type thing-ish. Her second attempt a bit more dramatic. Here's the conversation:
"Hey Savannah, what do you have in your hand?"
"A caterpillar."
"Really? Cool! Where'd you find it? Lemme me see."
"Back there on the ground."
"Cute... except that's like a meal worm type thing."
"Oh that's fine too."
"Well what are you going to do with it?"
"Do you think meal worms get car sick?"
"Maybe? Why? You plan on bringing it home with us?"
"Yep. Thought about it."
"Huh. Well, guess we'll find out then. If there's a little tiny pile of green throw up on your hand when you get home, you'll know."
We chuckled.
"So what's it called when you can't breath?"
"What?"
"Like when you're in some place small and you get scared."
"Claustrophobic?"
"Yeah!! That!!! Do you think mealworms can get claustrophobic??"
"I don't know. Why? Where are you going to put it?"
"Well I was thinking incase it gets car sick I could put it in a box or something but I wouldn't want it to freak out if it was claustrophobic."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I see. Hmmm. Well I don't know. You could ask him?"
"haha Mom! Maybe we could do sign language. I'll tell him if it's too small in there to wiggle to his left once for yes and to his right twice for no."
Now before you call PETA, you'll be happy to know she let him go before we got to the car.
Savannah's "car sick, claustrophobic, American Worm Sign Language pioneer meal-worm".
And to think this whole trip was just one affirmative answer away from NOT happening when, on the freeway on the way to our adventure while passing the sewer processing plant, Savannah inquired, "Alright!!! Did somebody poop their pants?!?!?"
It started out well enough, we pulled up to this marvelous sight welcoming us, beckoning us to come "exercise" ourselves by it...
... then we got out of the car and the downward slope began.
Having decided to NOT put poor Abigail in her straight jacket and strap her to me we opted instead to put both of the babies in strollers. Issue numero uno arrives-Abby is asleep and in case you weren't well versed on baby etiquette - you NEVER wake a sleeping baby, ESPECIALLY a princess such as Abigail. ;D So my mom SWEARS she saw the mom from 18 Kids and Counting (or 24 rather, whatever it's up to these days) "hang" her baby car seat from the handles of the umbrella stroller. Despite my immediate response of, "Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat??!?!?!??!" I decided to play along. I helped for all of about 4 minutes, until I realized I hadn't the patience for that task and left my mom to her own devices, which are many because fast forward to approximately 30 minutes later (according to Dion's prayer later that night) and Abby was strapped to the umbrella stroller, by what I'm still not sure, BUT the important part remained... she was still in her car seat AND still asleep.
This pic was OBVIOUSLY taken later in the walk when she woke up. And it is secure, I promise.
Off we walked, across the road, down the hill to the paved trail. My mom and I were pleased with ourselves. After all, this was day number 2 of us being motivated to get motivated, which also made this day one whole day more of following through than any previous attempts we had made at getting motivated.
Addie and Savannah and Dion were a stone's throw ahead of us pushing Livvy in her stroller when they came upon a large sign. Now generally I would encourage the girls to read signs and things around us so that they are more aware of what's going on and also for practice. Not this sign. This sign I could have stood for them to zoom pass. However, as the "Guidebook to Being a Successful Child" CLEARLY states, "You MUST NOT do what your assigned adult would like you to do WHEN they want you to do it. INSTEAD you should wait until the opportunity arises to do WHAT they wanted you to do once but instead WHEN they'd rather you NOT do it." (i.e. passing up bathroom opportunities, remembering your mom's conversation in the car two weeks ago when she WASN'T talking to your but forgetting to tell your teacher something your mom told you to tell her this morning, etc. etc.) Now I knew what this sign said cause I've been there before and I've read it (yes, SOMEtimes I practice what I preach). So I kept walking. But the girls are frantically trying to explain that the sign says "RIGHT THERE!!" to beware of Mountain Lions, Snakes, and something else I can't remember what. Surprisingly it was not the kids who were the first to ask whether this was true or not, it was my mom's shaky voice I heard ask, "Uhh, are there really mountain lions around here?" "Yep!" I said, attempting to sound as carefree as possible when admitting that there have been mountain lion sightings in the area from time to time. But I kept walking, figuring like tiny little sponges the girls would move on to soaking up the next thing soon enough. We discussed how long these trails were and checked out all the water markings from where the water had risen to when the river flooded in the weeks before. Before long we came to the "woods". Now knowing that my girls are the extremists that they are (not reeeeeal positive where they got that from?) they practically wanted to use the lint from their pockets as bread crumbs so that we could find our way back to the car despite everything being CLEARLY marked and seemingly oblivious to the fact that the trees, for the most part, were only on one side of us. Being the brave Mommy that I am I quickly entered the "forest" without slowing my stride. We were attempting to make this time count so my mom and I kept the pace up as much as possible. This only led to the girls finding something, slowing to check it out or pick it up, then racing to catch up with us to inquire about said item. Orrr, running ahead to check stuff out and then shanghai'ing us once we caught up.
The first discovery came from Addie. My mom and I overheard her sharing with Savannah that she had found a 'lily pad'. What's the fuss? you might ask. Well I'll tell you the fuss! This was no ordinary lily pad. THIS lily pad grew in the ground, next to grass, and it was short, with a thick stem coming straight up through the middle. A new species of "lily pads" indeed! It wasn't long before the girls were picking "bamboo". No, we haven't traveled to East Asia, we are still in lil' ol' Red Bluff. Much like the lily pads these "bamboo stalks" were nestled amongst the grass, very small and thin, and easily plucked out of the ground by the girls as they ran past. I don't know about you but I'd like to see a Panda bear get full off of these tiny little shards of "bamboo". Now I let this go on for a bit-figured it was harmful enough. I found amusement in the girls ripping along the path shouting to each other that there was more and more bamboo, and to, "Look how big of one I found!!" This was until Savannah came close enough to me that I could see the sticky milk dripping out of the ends of the "bamboo". I quietly said, "uhhh, those aren't bamboo, their milk weeds, and you're going to get that sticky stuff all over your hands and you won't have anything to get it off with." I'm pretty sure her collection hit the ground before I had even finished my sentence. Seconds later, Savannah shouted "Guyyyyyys! Those aren't bamboo!!" It didn't seem to slow their stride. Addie dropped her collection as well and moved on to the next thing. My mom and I decided to leave her recently discovered "lily pads" alone.
Now Dion had said a couple times that she had to use the restroom (see above rule). But what was I suppose to do? Pull a porta potty out of my back pocket? I knew there was a fork coming up in the trail where there might be more foot traffic than we had encountered so far, so I tried explaining to Dion that she might want to squat behind a tree before we started coming across people. Needless to say she didn't listen, attempting to hold it I noticed her steps getting shorter but at the same time quicker? This was the potty dance in motion. And on the occasion there would be a rustling in the jungle branches and although most likely it was simply a bird the girls had a great time conjuring up what it might actually be. A few times the rustling was rather loud which really startled the girls, this wasn't beneficial in the least to Dion's need to use the facilities. Nearing the intersection where three paths crossed there was a bench and a few mile markers, but just before this point there was a slight dip in the trial and a much thicker covering of "forest", which caused the trail to seem darker and a bit more eerie. Enter my mother. My sweet, loving, sensitive, best-grammie-ever mother. The same one who loves to get cheap laughs out of scaring people. The timing was perfect. Just as Dion jumped from a quick, louder than before, rustling of the trees my mom grabbed her from behind and growled, "What are you doing." I'm surprised Ms. Dion didn't water the trail right there where she stood. She scolded Grammie and caught up to me where I was waiting just past the bench. Well while my mom and I were discussing which direction we wanted to go and how much farther we were going to be able to make it, Dion must've decided that that scare put her over the edge. While looking at my mom I see behind her a couple of people coming up the trail on bikes. I turned to inform the girls that people were coming and to stay off the trail while my mom and I decided what our next move was going to be, aka caught our breath. Once turned, my gaze met the instantly widened eyes of Miss Dion, who has, with obviously no other options at her disposal, decided to squat all of 14 inches from the cement trail. She shouted, "WHAT!?!?? NOOOOOOOOOOOO!?!?!?" I immediately burst into crying/hysterical laughing. She stood up, while hunched over grabbing at her shorts, and waddled towards the stroller I was pushing. I'm in hysterics. Like bent over slapping my knee laughing! So is my mom. Dion positioned herself in front of the car seat, that was mysteriously still staying in it's place on the umbrella stroller, in hopes that it was going to provide her with some sort of privacy. It did not. The people were going to be riding their bikes right past her no matter where she stood. She shouted, "Help me! What are you doing!??!? HELPPPP!!!" lol. At this point I'm worried if I'll need some sort of resuscitation, and became concerned because I knew my mom would be of no help cause she was laughing just as hard... and pointing! Yes, we had deliriously resorted to pointing and laughing at my frantic 7-year-old daughter!! She yanked her shorts up just moments before the intruders passed, and although in the end she got a chuckle out of it she definitely did NOT appreciate our laxidazy approach to helping her. lol. Onward!!
As my mom and I are approaching the completion of mile number 2 I mention to her that my legs are feeling super warm. (for those of you who exercise regularly --- shut it). My mom quickly informs me to be thankful that I have capri's on and that at least all the heat gets to go somewhere! She has long pants on and her heat is just bouncing off her pants back onto her legs and meeting up with the other heat that is coming off her legs again and together they are making baby heat so now her legs are three times hotter than mine! lol. We hit mile 2 and turned around... now at this point in the story I would like to pause and offer a heart felt apology to my horses whom I NEVER allowed to run back to their stable or barn or trailer or gate or whatever it was... cause the fact that we were now returning to our car where our water bottles were (lesson learned on that one) and a seat, and the prospect of home and shower and couch were just a mere 2 mile trail walk ahead, I wanted to run! Apparently the girls had gotten a bit tired of "discovering" new plant life along the trail and on the return trip decided they would discover things from the Animal Kingdom instead. Enter Savannah. Her first attempt at finding a caterpillar was a failure when she ruled out the possibility of it turning into a butterfly and instead admitted it was most likely just a worm type thing-ish. Her second attempt a bit more dramatic. Here's the conversation:
"Hey Savannah, what do you have in your hand?"
"A caterpillar."
"Really? Cool! Where'd you find it? Lemme me see."
"Back there on the ground."
"Cute... except that's like a meal worm type thing."
"Oh that's fine too."
"Well what are you going to do with it?"
"Do you think meal worms get car sick?"
"Maybe? Why? You plan on bringing it home with us?"
"Yep. Thought about it."
"Huh. Well, guess we'll find out then. If there's a little tiny pile of green throw up on your hand when you get home, you'll know."
We chuckled.
"So what's it called when you can't breath?"
"What?"
"Like when you're in some place small and you get scared."
"Claustrophobic?"
"Yeah!! That!!! Do you think mealworms can get claustrophobic??"
"I don't know. Why? Where are you going to put it?"
"Well I was thinking incase it gets car sick I could put it in a box or something but I wouldn't want it to freak out if it was claustrophobic."
"Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, I see. Hmmm. Well I don't know. You could ask him?"
"haha Mom! Maybe we could do sign language. I'll tell him if it's too small in there to wiggle to his left once for yes and to his right twice for no."
Now before you call PETA, you'll be happy to know she let him go before we got to the car.
And to think this whole trip was just one affirmative answer away from NOT happening when, on the freeway on the way to our adventure while passing the sewer processing plant, Savannah inquired, "Alright!!! Did somebody poop their pants?!?!?"
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