Hike

The cabin is in National Forest, so there were lots of trails and opportunities for adventure. As you can see, Gwen wasn't especially excited about our hike up the mountain. She rarely graced us with a smile and kind of growled into her binkie the entire hike up.Even Grandma braved the outdoors...wearing nothing less than a black turtleneck sweater. I'll bet she was warm.
We stopped for some shade and water. Mama Allan got her hat decorated.
Gwen continued to growl...
and Jan joined her in English. (Imagine her mouthing something like "can we go home now?" and you've pretty much captured her sentiment in this picture. She doesn't like to get sweaty and only came to be supportive of the family adventure. And maybe because Evan pushed her into it.)
Lots of moisture on and around the trail. We split up after another good distance up the mountain. Gwen and I continued on with the boys while Elise, Jan, Mama and Grandma went back to fix up lunch. Gwen continued to growl...
The view from the trail. My camera only took 2 more pictures after this before it died. The battery was running really low, that is why it is blurry. Sorry. Try to imagine.

And then also feel free to imagine a baby Gwen growling all the way back down (now on Papa Allan's back. Carrying a baby up a mountain was harder than you might think!). About 5 minutes from the end of the trail, she fell asleep in the carrier. Her head was flopped backwards and her bow had slipped to shield her eyes from the sun. Very amusing and quite cute. Evan took a picture with his camera since mine was dead, but it wasn't digital and I may not get a copy for a while (let alone scanned into the computer), so you'll just have to imagine. I'm asking a lot of your imagination today, aren't I? :) It was a great hike!