Getting out of the house

Well this has been a big weekend for me and Benjamin so far, and its only Saturday afternoon! I went to see Juno last night, with Maija and Anne. It was a great movie. It was really well cast, with high school students that looked like they might really be in high school. The dialog was great too - way more like actual conversation than most movies, and waaay more like real teen agers than most movies. I laughed, I cried (I know, I am a total sap), I ate popcorn and milkduds. All around a very satisfactory evening. The last movie I saw in the theater was in October, which really isn't that long ago I guess, but it was still really fun to get out. Maija was at home with Tess by herself all week this week, with Colin in Boston, and she was maybe even more excited than I was. So that was big night out for me.

Then this morning we packed Maisy and Benjamin and 4 bags of gear into the car, and headed out to North Bend to go snowshoeing with Scott and Josie (and Zeus and Athena). It has apparently been too long since we have been out there, as we took the wrong exit and didn't notice. Loren finally called, and verified that they live on exit 32, and exit 34 is the home of the gas station bbq place that we like. Anyway, we got that all figured out, and got out to the trail, at Rattlesnake Lake.

It was beautiful out, crisp and clear and not too cold, with all the trees dusted in snow. Benjamin wore his little blue fleece bear cub suit, and was totally adorable (duh). He went for a ride with his dad in the Sherpani front pack, and Maisy tore around at top speed with Zeus and Athena. It was like traveling with a pack of dogs. Scott and Josie applauded us for not letting the boy slow down our outdoorsyness, which is great, because that has definitely been one of our goals as parents. Wow. Scary. We are parents. Anyway, we hiked/snowshoed for about 2 hours, which was all that Benito would tolerate. He was proclaiming his need to eat by the end, and I was speed walking to the car, so that I could feed him. We did consider other options - mobile feeding in the frontpack, and Loren suggested building me a nest of pine branches to sit on and feed him, but the car seemed to make the most sense. We finished it off with a fantastic South Beach diet brunc and Guitar Hero at Scott & Josie's. All in all, pretty successful for his first real outdoor outing.