Some snippets of the falls:

Mossy Waterfall

Curvy Falls

A snippet of the wildflowers:

Wild Columbine (Aquilegia canadensis) with Ferns

Closeup of Wild Columbine (Aquilegia Canadensis)

Mayapple (Podophyllum peltatum) Not Quite Blooming Yet

Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum)

Jack in the Pulpit (Arisaema triphyllum)

Possible Showy Orchid (Orchis spectabilis)

Possible Star Chickweed (Stellaria pubera)

Possible False Solomon’s Seal (Smilacina racemosa)

More photos of our Falls Ridge Wildflower Hike can be found on my Flickr site.

One April Friday evening, Ryan and I had just enough daylight to take Sagan out for a quick hike. We drove up to the Lorton Workhouse Arts Center, parked our car, and hiked the Slaughterhouse Trail.

Trail Overview
This trail is mainly intended as a mountain bike trail. As a side benefit, there are obstacles and ramps for the bikes that make nice little challenges/playgrounds for walking toddlers.

Mountain Bike Obstacles Can Double as Playgrounds!

The namesake of the trail is an old slaughterhouse for the prison. It adds a nice “creep factor” to the woods which is usually indigenous to say, Burkittsville, Maryland.

Window Inside Slaughterhouse

Fauna
We saw a dead opossum, a dead raccoon, and a really big discarded snake skin inside the slaughterhouse. As far as living creatures, we saw plenty of birds and squirrels. Sagan got to take in a nice nest of baby caterpillars. Ryan and I spotted a few ticks crawling on us, but luckily none found their way to Sagan (It would be another two days before Sagan would be graced with his very first tick).

Caterpillars!

Flora
Lots of evergreens and your typical trees you would see in the area such as tulip poplars. But the highlight of the flora this trip were the seeding dandelions!

Neat Old Tree

Sagan Blows on a Dandelion

Future Trail Maintainer?
At Leesylvania State Park, Sagan showed an aptitude for personal training. On this hike, he showed his might also have an interest in trail maintenance as well. He was very good and thorough about throwing pine cones off the trail. When he found some nice brown pine boughs, he announced, “Brush! Brush!” and started brushing the trail. Perhaps that’s also a sign he’s got a little bit of thru-hiker innovation in him as well.

Sagan’s “Brush”

Brushing the Trail

More pictures of our quick hike to the Slaughterhouse Trail can be found on my Flickr site.

On the Fitness Trail at Leesylvania State Park, Ryan Somma took some pictures of me doing the overhead ladder.

When I finished, Ryan noted, “The most impressive part of that was your tongue.” He reported it was hanging out the entire time I was traversing across.

Eh, no biggie. Michael Jordan does that too, right?. When I got home, however, I discovered I didn’t look a thing like Michael Jordan. I seem to bear a much stronger resemblance to Odie! : ) : ) : )

Odie!

A few Sundays ago, however, we had a great deal of home improvement tasks and as afternoon turned to late afternoon, it was clear we weren’t going to make the gym. Instead, we decided to take our son out to Woodbridge, Virginia’s Leesylvania State Park for some outdoor fun.

Now, I always look forward to being outside, but there was definitely part of me that was disappointed I was going to miss my gym date. Little did I know, there is something better than working out with your spouse– Working out with your spouse AND your son!

We parked, we started our way on the Bushey Pointe Trail and lo and behold we discovered it was one of those fitness trails where they have different stations set up for you to try out different exercises. We all, Sagan included, had fun experimenting at stations and then jogging to the next one.

Ryan Does Push Ups at a Station

Sagan Jogs Between Stations

Modifications
Just as some exercises have to be modified for pregnancy, Sagan had to modify some of the stations for toddlerhood.

Sagan Finds Another Use for the “Toe Lifts” Station

When we let Sagan do some assisted pullups, Ryan noted that Sagan was holding his own bodyweight. Yet, we were still surprised a few stations later when Sagan grabbed onto a tricep dip bar and started having the time of his life doing leg lifts.

Sagan Does Leg Lifts

Future Personal Trainer?
We also found Sagan to show signs of being an effective personal trainer. At one point, he was watching Ryan doing reverse push-ups.

I guess Sagan decided that exercise wasn’t challenging enough for Ryan. So he decided to add a little more resistance to the mix.

Hmm… Daddy Doesn’t Look Like He is Working Hard Enough

Ah…. Much Better!

Or there was the time when Ryan just finished up the last of his Bar Jump sets when Sagan, supervising from one of the bars, ordered, “ONE MORE!”. : )

Sagan Supervises Ryan Doing Bar Jumps

Sagan wasn’t singling poor Ryan out. Later, when Sagan was trying to do his own version of bar jumps, he showed the self motivation to do “one more” of his own.

Followup Hike
And when we all finished our stations, we had the beautiful Potomac to take in as we continued to the hike the Bushey Pointe Trail and the Powell Trails. By the end of the outing, missing out on the gym with my husband was just a distant memory. : )

Post Workout Hike – Sagan and Ryan Take in the Potomac River

More pictures of our trip on the Bushey Pointe Trail in Leesylvania State Park can be found on my Flickr site.

I made myself some oatmeal and strawberries, grabbed some soy milk, and sat down next to the little boy who immediately put his spoon down and started to enthusiastically point.

“TREE! TREE!” he shouted proudly. He was very clearly pointing right at…ME!

Well, I may start the 3rd trimester tomorrow, but I’m not definitely not THAT big, at least not yet, so I was a little confused.

Then I looked down.

It turns out I had slept in a shirt from the American Chestnut Foundation. Only I had put it on backwards (Hey, I’m not superwoman. I can’t mother, work, and be bothered with frivolous details like what direction my clothes are on. Hehe). As a result, a beautiful botanical drawing by artist Bruce Lyndon Cunningham was on my chest.

American Chestnut Botanical Drawing By Bruce Lyndon Cunningham

I smiled. “You’re right, Sagan. That is a tree!!!”

“TREE!” Sagan agreed.

With that, we resumed our breakfasts and had a most delightful Friday morning.

It turns out, she fancied a man who did not share her affection. He explained in simple, albeit blunt, terms why.

But she took that moment and used it as motivation. Even though months have passed and our gym is now a whole 17 minutes further away, I still see her occassionally. Still focused, still working hard.

I’m currently pushing 27 weeks with my second pregnancy. The other day I was indulging in a shower (motherhood has definitely increased my appreciation of a good, long shower). As I bathed, I found myself singing a number of 60s tunes that reminded me of my deceased father.

And then I remembered how around this time last pregnancy, there would be mornings where I would go downstairs and he would be in the kitchen cooking sausage or bacon or other red meat temptations. He would look at me and greet me with, “You’re getting faaaat!” I think at the time, I laughed politely, but it’s not exactly what a pregnant girl wants to hear.

But this week, nine months after his death, when I got out of the shower, I noticed my increasing girth in the mirror (it’s kinda hard to miss these days ). I thought of my father getting that infectious smile of his and those mischievous wrinkles around his eyes. I thought about him calling me fat and this time, I could clearly see his underlying excitement of what that actually meant– a new grandson.

And I smiled.

Like that woman at the gym, I too found surprise happiness in being called fat.

1. He could take out the trash
   - or -
2. He could give his mother a hug.

“He chose to take out the trash!” my friend laughed.

I knew it was coming, but I thought with a 20 month old son, I had a good decade or so before I would encounter such a snub. Nope! Last month for my 38th Birthday Hike, our little family drove up to Catocin Mountain Park. We parked at the Visitors Center and hiked 1.4 miles to Cunningham Falls, which at 78-feet is the largest cascading falls in Maryland.

Sagan was patiently indifferent to the first 1.2 miles. He did some walking, but for the most part hitched a ride.

Hitching a Ride with Daddy

When we reached the final approach to the falls, however, Sagan found his passion. That last 0.2 miles was a boardwalk and he LOVED running back and forth on it.

YEAH! Now this is where the fun is at!

He loved it so much, in fact, that when I tried to get him to stop for a second to pose for a picture with the falls, he would have none of it! He squirmed, he balked, and then…

He ran away. : )

See ya, Mama! I have places to go!

To be honest, it was rather worth it to see him have so much fun. After some more exploring the boardwalk, we hiked back to the visitors center and indulged in some yummy yummy Cracker Barrell on the way home. All in all, a most excellent day!

More pictures of our hike to Cunningham Falls can be found on my Flickr site.

Instructables: Homemade Cadbury Crème Eggs

It’s interesting what a difference a year makes. Last year with an eight month old, I took one look at the images of the egg-shaped chocolate molds and thought, “No way.”

This year, maybe it’s because I’m getting more sleep now… or maybe I have finally learned the necessity of keeping extracurricular endeavors like this simple. Either way, I looked over that article and I thought, “Hey, I can half-ass this! I’ll just dip the eggs in chocolate like we do Oreos or truffles.” (which the Instructables article actually covers on Step 5 – Alternative Method)

So this morning before work, Sagan supervised and did an extensive inspection of the food coloring while I mixed up the filling. We had to improvise some of the ingredients. The biggest thing was we ran out of confectioner’s sugar, so we substituted the last cup of sugar with 3/4 cup whole wheat flour (which considering how sweet our filling turned out to be, I don’t think it really needed that extra cup sugar after all). Also I always double vanilla. I like vanilla. : )

The filling got a nice long session with the refrigerator during our work day. After work, as dinner cooked, rolled up our filling into the requisite little balls which got to go back into the fridge while we ate.

Then after supper, we took a bowl, melted up some dipping chocolate and chocolate chips in the microwave, dipped those suckers in, plopped them on wax paper, and threw them back into the fridge.

Roughly ten minutes later, we were enjoying our homemade Cadbury Crème Eggs. Really all and all, it was little effort and the pay off was delicious. My husband used the word “magic” and joked that he expected “Cadbury to bust down the door and arrest us for patent infringement”.

And no one seemed to mind that they weren’t perfectly shaped eggs from chocolate molds… particularly not Sagan. : )

Sagan Savors His “Egg”

Sagan Enjoys View at Julie J Metz Wetlands Bank

Trail Overview
This trail system was absolutely perfect for a toddler! The trails were flat and at the same time, they had numerous bridges and wooden walkways to intrigue your child (and keep you elevated out of the wetlands). We had some rain earlier in the day, so we had a bonus perk– muddy puddles! My son loved splashing in them, stomping in them, and then he leaned down and put his hands in. At that point, he didn’t love muddle puddles so much (he despises dirty hands).

Sagan Crosses One of Many Bridges/Wooden Walkways

YEAH! Mud is AWESOME!

Misc View of Wetlands

Flora
Honestly, I wasn’t paying that much attention to the trees. I did spy some flowering catkins and the tiniest of baby leaves making their first spring appearance. There was plenty of evidence of Sweet Gum, from the ample collection of spikey balls on the ground to the distinctive “alligator-wood” of the branches. I also noted American Sycamore. I don’t recall seeing any Red Maples.

Yellow Catkins Flowering

Sagan Examines One of Spring’s First Leaves

Souvenirs of Sweet Gum

Pawpaw Alert! I did see a sign that indicated there are pawpaws in the park. Translation: This might be a good park to visit in September. : )

This Sign Wouldn’t Tell You to Identify Pawpaw, If There Were No Pawpaws

Fauna
Like Huntley Meadows Park in Fairfax, Virginia this little park gives you a lot of bang for your buck when it comes to wildlife. So many birds were singing and so loudly that it almost seemed as if we had a radio on. As you can expect, waterfowl were plentiful. As dusk neared, we had a wonderful serenade of spring peepers. It was reminiscent of the Spring Peeper Serenade from my 35th Birthday, though not quite as loud. During our hike we also saw lots of souvenirs left behind by beavers (in the form of gnawed tree stumps) and deer (in the form of many, many, many footprints in the mud).

Geese

Just One of Numerous Tree Stumps Left Behind By Beavers

Deer Track in Mud

Julie J. Metz Wetland Bank was an accidental find, but I highly recommend it, particular to families with small children. I don’t think we could have had a more enjoyable afternoon.