Castle Rock Hike

This afternoon we went for a hike in one of the regional parks near our house. It is really only 5 minutes away but we only "discovered" it recently. We figured it would be a pretty nice hike with the boys since it is fairly flat and there are some interesting rock formations. Our destination was a cave that Ryan found the first time he went hiking in the area. It was probably under a mile from where we parked. They were pretty good troopers on the way out to the cave, but then on the way back they complained bitterly about how tired their legs were. At one point Ryan was carrying both boys, one in each arm.

Under the best of conditions Elliot is slow as molasses. Today he pretended to be an excavator the whole hike. He scooped up sand and dirt (hopefully not horse poop, which was in plentiful supply along the trail) in his "claws." And when we tried to get him to go faster by saying, "come on, Elliot let's race. Be a speedy excavator." He just replied, "well I am not a racing excavator, I'm just a little excavator." Once they are snug in their beds I think back on the day and find things like that incredibly adorable and wonder how in the world I could get impatient with him.

He really is so cute and he has really come SUCH a long way in the last year. It is just amazing. He is so much calmer and nicer to Andrew. We don't have any of the sleep issues that plagued us ALL last year. He goes to bed without any drama and stays asleep all night. I love to tuck him in to bed. He says, "can you give me one little snuggle and we can talk about stuff?" I lay down next to him with our faces close together and we whisper about our day or I ask him "would you rather" questions such as, "would you rather drive a dump truck or a cement mixer?" or "would you rather eat Oreo cookies or rice crispy treats?" Then I tell him the spot I made for him is all nice and warm, and he scoots over so he can sleep in the "warm spot" and he turns over the pillow so it will be cold on his cheek and goes to sleep. Tonight the boys were in bed by 6:30. Ryan and I were in absolute heaven!!!

Oliver is doing really well, too. He is still loving Kindergarten. I adore his teacher, she is completely unflappable. There are 32 kids in his class. (I know, crazy!!!) But she is just like this amazingly serene, kind but firm, Mary Poppins-like force for good in the world. She never raises her voice and gets all those wiggly, independent, impulsive Kindergarteners to more or less march in the same direction. She has created such a good learning environment where consideration and kindness to others is just as important as anything else that they are learning. Every day before they go out on the playground she reminds them that if someone asks them if they can play with them, the answer is always, "yes!" Oliver is thriving in that environment and has made some great friends.

Here are some more pictures of our hike.