the power of fresh air

Grounding myself amongst
the towering pines.

I'm a huge believer in the power of fresh air. When Gwen is cranky or has energy to burn, we head outdoors to walk it off. When she is feeling sick or tired, then I strap her into a carrier and do the walking for her, but still head outside to get her that fresh air. Its rejuvenating and one thing I am really looking forward to this spring is the chance to throw open all our windows and give this house a good airing out.

The weather was sunny and relatively warm this weekend, so we did the best to enjoy that as much as possible!

Saturday I had my monthly recharge in the forest. It was a rewarding, refreshing day. Crisp air, good clean up done on most of the main trails of the park (thanks to a divide and conquer approach). Most the the blowdowns that my group was removing from the trails were from pine trees, so that offered extra olfactory enjoyability!

While I was doing that, Gwen and Trav headed to the Home Depot for their own monthly ritual. Every month HD has a kids project. You sign up and show up, they supply the pieces for a different project every month. This time it was bird feeders. My girl is going to be pretty crafty thanks to all these projects!

The rest of the day was low-key. Gwen requested a blanket fort and I was happy to oblige! By the end of the day, that thing was so stuffed full of books, pillows, stuffed animals, and super hero costumes that we barely fit. But she was happy!

Sunday I had to work for part of the day, but even that entailed some walking in the city (though while wearing high heels! Ugh!). Trav and Gwen cleaned out his car, Gwen spent some time with the neighbors, they hit up a grocery store, and a playground! They were busy. Once I got home, I was ready for some more outdoor time... in more sensibly/comfortable shoes! 

Gwen and I headed out to take a walk, but only ended up as far as our corner, since the local firemen were doing some training exercises on the tennis courts across the street. Gwen was enthralled, so we hung out to watch.

Well, one of the guys took a shine to her, coming over to say hi, then coming over again (after checking with his cohorts) to see if Gwen wanted to try using the hose! She gave a very enthusiastic yes to that!

Such great guys! She has decided that she wants to be a firefighter when she grows up.

We hung out for much of the rest of the afternoon just watching them do their thing.

Love the rainbow!

Once they packed  up and took off, we spent another 30 hour or so killing time outside before Trav was done grilling our dinner (man I missed that grill!).

It was a great weekend, and I cannot wait to spend much more time outside in the coming months!

For now though, back to the grind!