Mount Baldy and more fall fun

Hello,

I went to bed early last night, then woke up early this Saturday morning to sneak downstairs to get some alone time. Maybe I'll finally get this blog updated!

We've done a lot of fun things the past few weeks. It seems like Willow is really starting to fit into our "regular" lives a lot better. It's getting easier, is what I'm trying to say. Infants are so much work! It's just so much fun to bring Willow places and watch her experience new things. She learns so much every day.

Two weekends ago, me, Willow, my friend Anna and Willow's friend Maisa went to the local corn maze and pumpkin patch. Neither of us had ever been to a corn maze before. I guess I don't know what I was expecting, but I think I was sort of envisioning this little maze where kids could scamper around and the moms could hang out and watch. Not quite. When we got there and paid our $5 to the lady, she looked at us and goes, "do you have strollers?" We're like "uh...no". "so, are you going to carry them?" We then found out that the maze usually takes people an hour to an hour and a half to finish! There were goals you were supposed to find throughout the maze to win prizes and stuff. We hadn't even brought diaper bags or sippy cups or anything like that. Well, we went in anyway and didn't take it too seriously and the girls had a great time. (Okay, I did have to leave Anna with the kids and sprint back in to the maze once we were done to find the last goal we were missing). Then we picked out a pumpkin, the girls played in a tepee, and we watched a pumpkin get launched across the field with a huge catapault-thing. It was a really fun time!





















Then last weekend, while poor Josh was slaving away all day fixing our chimney, me, Willow, Beth and Beth's friend Amanda went on a hike from our book: the Helmut and Candis Stern preserve at Mt. Baldy, or just Mt. Baldy for short. It was a 6-miler, the longest hike I've done with Willow. She did great, just hanging in the ergo carrier the whole hike, snoozing on the way back down the mountain. We had lunch at the top - it was an amazing view! I can't believe I never knew about this hike or did it before. There were 360 degree views of the lake and trees. We missed peak leaves by a week or so, but it was still beautiful.


















At the top, you definitely wouldn't want to take your eye off your toddler for even a second - there were huge rock cliffs that went down hundreds of feet, with no safety rails or anything.

















Great-Great-Uncle Anton made and Grandpa Chuck painted this rocking horse for Willow. It's a replica of one I had when I was a kid. She loves it. This photo is sort of blurry because she is rocking so fast, but you can see her big smile. We'll have to try and get a better picture of her on it. The horse is still face-less because the face was supposed to be my job and I haven't had time to do it yet.















Here are some other random photos.

We finally snapped a photo of Willow and her dolly wearing their matching hats. She is starting to like dolls and stuffed animals and will carry them around with her and give them hugs and kisses. She likes to put a friend in her rocking horse with her sometimes too.















Playing the piano. Just the way she has her hands in this photo makes it looks like she is actually playing a masterpiece or something.















At her bookshelf. She will sit here for quite a long time (that would be 5 minutes for a toddler), paging through books and singing or talking about them.















Iron-baby:















On the potty. She hasn't used it since the random poop with Linda, but she sits on it sometimes with a toy...I guess my theory is that it will get her used to it and maybe she'll end up using it by accident? I actually have no strategy for potty training. I have been meaning to read up on it and see what I'm supposed to be doing.




















Playing in the leaf pile in our yard! She actually didn't like it all that much. This was a really lucky picture - I tickled her neck to get her to smile, a technique I learned from the photographer at Wal-Mart.















And last, here is another video of Willow's tricks. Some are repeats from the video a couple posts ago. I had to post it anyway because I love her newest trick of showing how old she is. :)