Today's major highlight was a hike at Oak Mountain with Gran. Dennis learned to say the words "hike" and "hiking", but they were not entirely correct for him since I was hiking with him in a backpack on my back. He didn't do much actual hiking himself.
It was another perfect fall day, with peak leaf color deep in the state park for us to enjoy. We met a few people leaving when we started out on the trail but otherwise had the trail to ourselves. Dennis was happy to identify the trees to us, not that he knows any genus or species, but said "tree" a few times. When he got a little bored, we ran through his animal sound vocabulary and he had a good time with that. He played some with my hair, since it was right in front of him and oh-so-convenient, and I finally was able to discourage him but fear that I might have a serious bald patch if we continue to do this on the regular basis we are intending.
We hiked to Maggie's Glen, but we didn't stop there. We had sort of planned to, but then thought better of it. We had a good momentum going, Dennis seemed happy enough without running around there, and if we headed back to the North Trail Head immediately instead of stopping, we'd have time to stop on the way out and see the Treetop Trail owls and other birds of prey. Dennis sensed that we weren't going to let him out to walk right about the time we turned around to head out, and he was incensed, but calmed himself when we told him about seeing the owls. Dennis, Gran, and I spent the next 10 minutes of the hike hooting at each other, and the time passed quickly. We learned about pine cones and showed him how we followed the colored blazes on the trees to help stay on the trail. We listened to the crickets and an occasional bird call. The temperature was in the 60's and very pleasant under the trees, and the low sunlight coming in made the newly turned yellow and red leaves glow almost magically. What a beautiful day for a hike. Two and a half miles of pure enjoyment, with a possibility of sore shoulders for a couple of days. Totally worth it.
We saw the owls and one vulture on the Treetop Trail, and instead of continuing on to the end of the boardwalk, Dennis (who was leading the way) turned around after the second cage and headed back toward the car. He walked down the stairs himself, ran across the bridge, got almost to the crosswalk and then turned back to go to the trail again. I scooped him up and told him that he was the one who decided he'd had enough, and it was time to leave. He started to fuss a tiny bit, but then he heard that we were stopping to have supper with Pop on the way home, and he was all smiles again. We had a very nice meal with Pop and Dennis fell asleep on the way home from the restaurant. He didn't wake up for the transfer between Gran's van and David's Blazer, and he continued to stay asleep until we zipped him into his pajamas. Since the time changes tonight, we had thought we'd try to keep him up a little later, but that wasn't to be. He's still a little overcharged and sleep deprived from yesterday (ditto for us), so maybe he'll get a nice full night's sleep anyway (and maybe he'll let us do so as well).
Since I wasn't able to carry him on my back AND snap his picture, I'll post a random cute one from yesterday. I'm sure no one will mind!
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