Take a hike!

On Chris's last trip to Germany, a coworker gave him this awesome baby carrier for hiking. We couldn't wait to try it out; in our pre-baby days we used to enjoy a hike on a nice fall day and today looked like it would be a perfect day to take that baby for a test-hike. We didn't want to get all crazy and try to hike up Table Rock or anything, so we started with some easy hiking around Paris Mountain State Park.
As can be seen in the photo above, Max was slightly unsure about this hiking contraption at first. But as soon as he was on Chris's back and bouncing around, he was good to go. It was quite chilly as we started off - thank goodness we remembered Max's mittens! And his Tigerhead!

We really did pick the absolute perfect day. The leaves were so pretty and it smelled so fall-like! And, (yay!) Max loves hiking!! (He especially loves it when Chris runs, or trips, or jostles his carrier in any way. My little adrenaline-junkie!!)

You know who else loves hiking? My old girl Bailey! She was such a trooper as we hiked all over that park, even though her hips aren't what they used to be. Of course, within about 5 minutes of us starting our hike, she decided to go to the bathroom, which had to be picked up of course (we were in an area where lots of people walk...of course she couldn't have waited until we were in the woods). The only problem is that there is only ONE trashcan in the ENTIRE park. Result: Mama had to carry a bag-o-poo for the entire 3 hour adventure. Fun times.

This dam behind us is the Lake Placid Dam, which was built in 1898. Not old in European terms, but pretty old around here.

We finally made it back to our car after 3 hours of non-stop walking. Chris survived being our "baby-mule", Bailey survived our 20 minutes of straight uphill climbing even with her bad hips, I survived 3 hours of lugging around a bag of poop, and Max survived being carried around like the little price he is. All-in-all, a really good time was had by all and I hope we'll do it again soon.

**Of course, I must add: look at Max in the picture above. He looks a tiny bit odd, right? He was ICE cold by the time we were done. Even though he had the Tigerhead hat and the mittens, his little hands were icy, and I'm guessing his legs were as well. He literally could not stand up and walk once we took him out of the pack. He was like a cute little baby horse, trying to learn how to use his legs. So, he got a little cocky and thought he could take off running downhill in the parking lot before his legs were really thawed out and you can see the end result below. Figures. We make it through hours of hiking through the woods without incident and have an accident in the parking lot right before we get in the car.  Regardless, he was chipper again within 5 minutes...but it looks awful!**