Amazing Weekend

It is now Sunday afternoon. Dennis and I are both in the living room, respective computers on our laps, chilling out. A rarity! It's been a great weekend, complete, full and yet not hectic. Yesterday, we took baby out to Anza Borrego Dessert State Park for our first real family hike. We choose the Borrego Palm Canyon trail because it is 1. only three miles in length roundtrip 2. right next to the visitor center and enjoys high traffic, which means it is "safe" 3. supposedly very beautiful right now as Anza Borrego is having a good wild flowers season (after the recent bouts of rain) 4. Dennis hasn't been.

The entire outing was a splendid success. The hike was beautiful and, more importantly, baby did very well. She slept on the way there - which means she got her morning nap - and she took to the backpack carrier very well. In fact, she slept on the trail too (I suppose the motion is very soothing). We did, however, stop twice during the hike up to the oasis (our destination on the Palm Canyon Trail) to feed baby and to give her a break. We also took a nice lunch break under the shade of the palms. It was really quite wonderful. I did not know this before, but Borrego Palm Canyon Trail is a very popular trail. I have never seen so many children on a trail before. I suppose they are there for the same reasons we chose the trail. Incidentally, it is quite spectacular a trail. There in the middle of the dessert is a stream, a full sized gurgling stream wide enough at places for children to go dipping in, and a colony of palms. You have to see it to appreciate it.

We stopped at Santa Ysabel at the Julian Pie Company for Apple Pie. Well, we stopped for Dennis to have his apple pie since neither Zoe and I can have any (no dairy!). Dennis is generally a very happy man. But he was an especially happy man after he had his pie.

Then, today, we took Zoe to Church for her first Easter service. Again, she did well. We did have to leave part way through for a little as she decided to babble loudly. But we returned in time for her to participate in communion. More importantly, she loved absolutely beautiful in her pink dress and hat.

So here we are, back at home. An hour or so has passed since I started writing this post. Zoe has refused to nap and so we finally took her out of her crib for her to play out in the living room. She's missing her nap time, and so will probably end up going to bed by 6 pm today. Early, but it's the weekend.

It's a warm and beautiful day with summer in the air already. I imagine this portends a scorching summer to come. But for now, we have the windows open and it's lovely to hear the birds chirping and the leaves rustling outside.