Father's Day Hike 2008

Dustin woke up to many piercing shrieks - screams! - of "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!" "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!" "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!" "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!" "HAPPY FATHER'S DAY, DADDY!"

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Father's Day Hike 2008

To celebrate this special day for Daddy, we packed a yummy lunch, drove up Flagstaff Road and had a picnic lunch and hike. We ate lunch at Flagstaff's Sunrise Ampitheater, which was made accessible just a few years ago after a two year Boulder ADAPT campaign. Thanks Comrades! The ramp is remarkable, and the view is breathtaking!

We are proud parents today - we are always proud parents, but today is one of those days when as parents, we realize more fully that our babies are really turning into adorable, fun-loving, opinionated, independent children. This was our first family hike with two fairly independent little hikers - no strollers, no wagons, no bottles, no binkies getting lost, no snacks demanded and absolutely no screaming resembling these dreaded words: I WANT OUT! I thought I'd died and gone to mommy heaven! The only, infrequent, screams came from mostly me: HIKING IS NOT RUNNING! HIKING IS WALKING!

The kids led the way for over 1/2 a mile to the end of the accessible Ute Trail. The hike produced only two bloody knees - two out of eight is good! Desty tripped over a boulder almost as tall as she at the very start of the hike, and tripped about half a dozen times thereafter, minus the tears. Benny took off at a run near the end, immediately falling and skinning his knee. "The boy" (as Desty calls him) appeared personally betrayed both by nature and his own legs! LOL Bloody knee, tears, and the shrieking terror abruptly came to a halt when he saw his friendly stick he had dropped in the fall.

Benny has always been intrigued by cameras. When he turned two, we ordered a frog camera for him off of ebay and he would constantly take our picture. Last summer, we got a new digi camera, and Benny realized that his didn't really work. Today, Daddy finally handed our camera over to Benny's dirt-covered little hands, and "the boy" took this picture of his father... I suspect the Burton's will have competing camera men very shortly! :-)

On the return hike, the little people must've been pooped because mommy cuddles were in, and using ther two good feet was out. Before you watch these two videos that follow, note that I'm using a back-up chair. (My other two chairs need repaired!) I call this power chair the Tank because it just plows everything with its unmatchable power. One of the two chairs I bought very used for Power Soccer, the Tank got my friend, Lori, all over DC last month, and my friend, Julie, all over New York. Unfortunately, the Tank needs a new seatbelt, and little makes me more nervous on a mountain than being without a seatbelt. Add children in tow, and my unfamiliarity with the Tank, and I tend to freak within a foot of a trail's edge. That all said, these videos are hilarious!

In the second clip, I said: "This is what ADAPT is gonna be like in September, '08...Free Our People!" Yes, we are ALL going to DC this fall! Desty's listening better, I can handle either her or Benny now, and briefly both (and it'll keep Daddy outta trouble! LOL ;-)~ Dustin sure loves the end of this clip!