November 11

Veterans Day!

I love this day because I am so grateful for the veterans who have served our country, and also because it's a bank holiday. Chris and I decided to spend the morning hiking, which has become our new family thing. We all love it, and the kids are getting stronger and more used to it, which means less complaining. 

Today we chose a new-to-us state park, and the trail we hiked started out with a steep, rocky climb, and ended with flat riverside trails. After our steep climb (Chris and I each had a toddler on our backs!), we were rewarded with this view:

Totally worth it.

And then Chris let the kids sit on this rocky outcropping of a cliff, and I almost lost it. I'm not a Nervous Nelly, and I'm not particularly concerned about heights, but that was too much for me. They stayed there long enough for the picture, and it still makes me feel nervous.

(Don't worry, Mom. No one fell off a cliff.)

I was much more comfortable with this viewpoint!

I chose this trail for the kids because it goes through a location that used to have lots of hotels and dance clubs around the turn of the 20th century, and the foundations of those old buildings still stand. I thought the kids would love "discovering" old buildings, and I was right.

Then we went down a massive staircase, crossed under a railroad bridge, and ended up on the river banks. The kids were delighted to clamber all over this pile of broken up concrete. Sure, it's a bit post-apocalyptic, but isn't the river and the setting lovely?

Eli tried - unsuccessfully - to throw rocks into the river.

Daisy took this picture of us.

Chris took this picture of me, and I actually really like it.

More clambering, and then off to continue our hike.

Caleb led the way.

And they took a few climbing breaks.

Daisy stopped to write her name in the dirt with a stick for a pen.

Amazingly, our hike ended with a playground! We stopped to play, have a picnic lunch, and set up my camera for a quick family photo. Eli wasn't happy, but the rest of us sure were! It was a great way to spend a bank holiday.

We took the kids home, stopping on our way for McDonald's hot fudge sundaes for the kids - a new family hike tradition. Once the little ones were down for naps, I went out running errands. I had two specific goals: booster seats, and fire cider.

Caleb is switching to doing his speech therapy in the evening so that he can also do a weekly social skills class at the same time. It's a great (and free!) opportunity, but it requires a bit of shifting of our schedules. I am so, SO thankful for Chris' mom, who is so faithful to spend every Tuesday afternoon shuttling Caleb to and from speech, and then making memories with Caleb and Daisy during their Special Time. She currently has one car seat in her car, but the change of speech times meant that it would be easier for her to have two seats. I did some research and decided that my very mature 5.5 and 7.5 year olds were probably ready to be in booster seats in Grandmother's car. That way, she can put the seats in her trunk when she doesn't have the kids, and she doesn't lose her whole back seat to car seats. 

Since Caleb has been in a car seat with a 5-point-harness since birth, making the switch to a booster seat makes me nervous. The safety of booster seats relies entirely upon the child knowing how to buckle and sit safely, so before we put the booster seat in Grandmother's car, we put it in my van. That way, I can supervise Caleb as he learns how to use it safely, and monitor him to make sure he isn't goofing off. So far, he's doing great!

However, it was a wild goose chase for me to get just one of these seats, and we really need several more (for Chris' car and for my mom's car). Caleb's primary car seat will still be a five-point harness, because it will still fit him for at least another year, but I'm glad to have a low-cost option for him to ride around with other people!

I was also hunting for ingredients to make Fire Cider. I bought a bottle of it last week, and like it so much that I want to keep using it all winter. However, the price is a bit much for how quickly we use it up, so I found a recipe to make my own. After much shopping and much chopping, I have this: 

Now I wait four weeks until it's ready!