HIKING AT FOURTH OF JULY CANYON

There are few things out there that rejuvenate me like a long hike. Since we've known we were going to leave Albuquerque, we've been trying to make the best of our time here by getting out of the house often. We have a long list of things we want to do before moving day, but I'm sure we won't get to them all. One of our favorite things to do as a family is go hiking, especially since Noble was born, so that part of the list has become priority. It's the one place that the three year old doesn't have to be entertained 90% of the time, but still gets out enough energy to not fight her nap - and the baby just passes out in the Ergo. When it was just Ev, getting outside for a hike was simple once we got a routine down. Hiking with two has become a bit more complicated, especially since Ev doesn't fit in a carrier anymore. She really is an expert hiker for a three year old, but we have to put a lot of thought into which trails she'll enjoy and be prepared to turn around early. Though some days I feel like a herd dog biting at the ankles of a sheep, we still make an effort to go often. Cultivating a love of nature in my kids is one of the most important aspects of being a parent for me. I've been reading Last Child in the Woods over the last month or so. Louv urges people to consider time in nature for children as essential for their health as good food, loving parents, and a full night of sleep. Time outside shouldn't be a extracurricular activity or something reserved for vacation - it should be an integral part of their day.

On this day, my mom was here visiting and we all woke up ready to get out of the house. Alex had a long weekend and we had originally wanted to go camping, but just couldn't get all of our t's crossed and i's dotted in time, so we settled for a hike somewhere we'd never been before. Fourth of July Canyon is known for its Fall colors due to the Maple trees growing in the area (uncommon for New Mexico). The drive out there was intense, ending with 7 miles on a winding dirt road, so we were glad to have four wheel drive. We did the easy one mile trail where Ev was glad to run wild, blow dandelion fluff, and talk about dinosaur tracks (and how it looked like they were chasing the horse tracks + that we needed to save the horses), then we started on the 6.5 mile loop. We made it a mile or two and decided to turn back, but I definitely want to see the rest. As I looked through the pictures of her blowing the dandelions, I realized I had taken similar pictures almost exactly a year ago in Brooklyn. Watching her grow is such a beautiful thing.

If you're local and looking for a similar hike a bit closer to home, we found a new favorite at the base of the Sandias. We were only able to hike the Sulphur Springs trail, but rumor has it there's a creek on the neighboring trail.

MOTHER'S DAY HIKE

 

 

 

I'm a pretty easy woman to please when it comes to holidays. Even being four weeks postpartum, all I wanted to do was get out of the house. I had been talking about hiking basically since an hour after Noble was born and though I wasn't medically cleared yet, I felt good enough and wanted to get some exercise, so I did. The differences between the first and second baby are comical. I'm pretty sure I hadn't even gotten up enough energy to do the dishes four weeks after Ev was born. Alex knows me all too well - his gift was bringing the tripod along to get a family picture. . . but we forgot the piece that actually attaches the camera to the tripod, so that was a no go. We did the next best thing and tried to use the camera strap to somehow rig the camera up on the tripod, hence the picture up there with just Evie's arm in it. Then we just decided to use a log, nature's tripod, and that worked out swimmingly. We weren't at all prepared for how cold it would still be up on the peak, but we don't give up easily. We scrounged around in the car for abandoned clothes, Alex gave Ev his flannel shirt that fit her like a dress, and we were on our way. We chose the 10k trailhead up on Sandia Crest because we'd been here before (on our third anniversary actually) and didn't want to push our luck driving around looking for a new spot on our first hike with two kids. Once we got moving, it wasn't quite as cold, but we still pretty much had all the trails to ourselves. Alex has been on this 'prepping' kick lately, so we basically have stockpiles of MREs around the house. He grabbed one of those for all of us to share and Evie didn't stop shouting the entire time, 'This is the best picnic EVER!' It reminded me so much of something my Dad would have done. Everything he did was magic when I was a little girl. I'm always astounded at the beauty and flourishing wildlife that is just a short drive from a barren desert. New Mexico is a quirky place - it really never stops surprising me.

52 IN 2014 • WEEKS 20 + 21 + 22 + 23

20/52

05.11.2014

When we announced that we were moving to Brooklyn, so many people were surprised and some were almost. . . offended. People tend to do that when they pride themselves on thinking you're a certain person, then you throw them through a loop. You see, we love being outside. I would even go so far as to say we're farm people at heart. We dream of a simple home, a big garden, fruit trees, chickens, and Papa says goats, but we'll debate that at another time. But we're young and haven't seen much, haven't done much yet, so we decided on a city adventure. The plan is to put in our time now on degrees and businesses, then when we're able to have that idyllic home we've dreamt of we'll have the time and energy to enjoy it. City living makes that all a bit easier - no car, no yard to mow - it just makes things simpler for us. New York City won't be our forever, but what plenty of people don't know is that there are a myriad of places to go that transport you far away from the city. There are miles and miles of beautiful parks in the city and plenty just a short drive away. One of my biggest worries when moving here was that we wouldn't be able to get you out into nature enough. You seem to flourish there and I didn't want to take that from you, but we seem to be finding our nature spots. Most weekends we're able to add another one to our list. I love watching you come alive here. I love watching you run with abandonment through the trails and the trees, then holding your tired body in my lap on the train ride home.

21/52

05.20.2014

You've become an expert pigeon-spotter (and chaser).

22/52

05.29.2014

We went for a picnic down by the shore today. I saw a little boy picking dandelion puffs and it dawned on me that I had never shown you how they float in the wind when you blow them. So we picked the whole field of them and you practice, practice, practiced and spent all your wishes on a 'stooter' or 'bike.' Things have been a bit out of sorts these days. I find myself wondering what to do to keep you entertained during the day and then something small like this makes me realize that there is still so much you've never experienced before, so many small things that you take joy in. I just have to guide you to them. On our picnic, we also saw a group of preschool kids marching and singing and you would have thought it was a circus by the way your face lit up. The teacher asked them all to stop and say hello and wave to you and you squealed with excitement. I'm hoping to find some friends for you to play with soon. I know you must be a little lonely.

23/52

06.10.2014

6 things I never want to forget about you at 2 years, four months:

(because I couldn't settle on just 5)

1. In the morning you wander over to the bedroom door and yell for me, 'Mama!' then you knock on the door. I hear those little taps and I put down my coffee and whatever I'm reading and I walk to the door. When I open it, you give me an excited, 'Hi! Good morning!' (You always awake bright eyed and bushy tailed and alas, I do not, so I get up before you to prepare myself for the onslaught of giving I'll have to do throughout the day.) I pick you up and walk you into the living room where you always notice that the yoga mat is out and ask, 'Mama, you doing yogurt? Dat you yogurt mat?'

2. We have one bedroom, so we all sleep in the same room, of course. When we left Albuquerque, we left our bed and your crib behind, so we're all just sleeping on mattresses on the floor right now. We usually come to bed a bit later than you and we often find that you've crawled off your mattress and over to my spot in our bed, curled in a ball in a sea of blanket, head on my pillow and all.

3. For awhile you hated to have your hair brushed. The compromise that we made was that you got to brush my hair after I was finished with yours. You liked that so much that you sporadically ask if you can brush my hair throughout the day. You even ask me to take my 'pony' out for you. You also love when I tickle you with the ends of it.

4. You have a pair of white Mary Jane dress shoes that I got for free at a thrift store on the base in New Mexico. They're scuffed and the soles are worn, but you love them just the same and want to wear them everywhere, with anything, rain or shine. They're the only shoes you love more than your rain boots.

5. I love the way you say snack - 'fffnnnnack' with the and f and n blown out your nose. It takes you an immeasurable amount of time to say, 'Mama, I want a fnnnaaack pease.'

6. I'll never get over way you acknowledge the camera coming out with an emphatic 'cheeeessse!' followed by a pucker to try and hide your smile.

PICNIC SEASON IS THE BEST SEASON.

Spring is a strange season. I feel like anywhere you live, you can never nail it down. Spring weather is never consistent. It's blustery and rainy, and that's Spring. It's borderline Winter, but everyone is too stubborn to let their Spring expectations go so they just carry their coats begrudgingly, refusing to actually wear them and hiding their shivers, and that's Spring. It's overcast all day, but not a drop of rain has fallen from the sky, and that's Spring. But on this day, Thursday, it was the perfect Spring. It was what you expect Spring to be. It was the reason people live through Winter kind of Spring. The more seasons that I encounter, the more I learn to appreciate things about each season and the more I'm convinced that it's all about perspective. The only season I might never make peace with is Winter. The wool socks and hot chocolate and fluffy coats and snow and rest is all nice until Christmas, then I'm ready to go outside again and there's still three months left of crap weather. Anyway, perspective - I was a little disappointed this year when 'Spring' came around, yet it didn't feel like Spring at all. Blossoms were swirling and tulips were blooming and trees were budding, but the skies were gray and the wind was blustery. So I just decided to let Spring off the hook and tell her she could be whoever she wants to be, I won't judge, and that has made all the difference. I wake up without expectations, dress for the weather, and head outside no matter what. It's made for some interesting moments like getting caught in a downpour and sling-shotting my kid out of her stroller onto the sidewalk, but Spring and I, we're learning to love each other unconditionally.

Any day that involves sitting in the shade and doing absolutely nothing important is a good one in my book, and that's exactly what we did. I'm also convinced that food tastes better outside - we packed up some tuna salad pitas, half of a watermelon, and grape chia kombucha and polished it all off in twenty minutes. I've had plans to buy some swanky picnic gear to make our picnic outings feel like something out of a Disney movie, but it's bills or swanky picnic gear, so bills, I guess. I always seem to get in a funk when the seasons change, but I'm feeling surprisingly optimistic and inspired these days with a little touch of 'There's not enough time in the day.' Something about Spring just makes me want to write pages of goals, goals I didn't even knew I had!

WANDERING

When I was young and in love with this city and a boy who I never imagined would end up my husband, much less living this dream with me, my mind was obsessed with what it would feel like to come home to New York City for the first time. Before we packed up our lives in a little box on wheels and traipsed across the country, I had been here a total of three times. I've never really believed in love at first sight except for the ability to love or not love this city upon first meeting. This city isn't a place you grow to love - you're either infatuated or not. Alex had been here once, three months before we left Albuquerque. Typing that out makes me realize how ludicrous that sounds, but it always felt right. I like to think NYC has a knack for that, guiding people in who are meant to be here. I'm convinced that fate calls New York City home. You can feel it when you wander the streets. I feel like things must be better in this city, like all you have to do is whisper your hopes and dreams up past the skyscrapers and over the rivers and the city gives you little glimpses of beauty to help you along your way. 

I feel the need to write about what it was actually like coming home to this city for the first time. We came across the Verrazano Bridge and drifted off to the right, following signs for 92 Street - not 92nd - the sign says 92. As we pulled up to a red light, ready to turn onto our street, I just laughed to myself in disbelief and looked out the passenger side window at Brooklyn, the Brooklyn. Alex looked at me with tired eyes and a grin spread across his face. Laughing for no other reason than exhaustion, he took a break to ask me what I was laughing about. I took a moment to think of the right words and couldn't - 'this, this isn't the way I imagined it would be.' He asked what was different. I motioned to Evie in the back seat, 'Well she wasn't supposed to be here and I never really thought it would be you in that seat.' He looked forward and drove through the light, stopping again after moving just a few feet. 'Is that ok? Are you disappointed?' I smiled, 'Not at all.' I hung onto this dream for a long time, carried it around with me everywhere I went through many seasons of life and just as I was ready to let it go and make peace with it never happening, the stars aligned. Here I am and the waiting was more productive than I thought - I get to share this with them.

I never really knew why I wanted to be here or what I would do when I finally made it here, but I did know I wanted to wander. It was almost like that's all that was calling me here - the ability to endlessly wander. I haven't even had a chance to walk through Manhattan much, which is where I always imagined I would wander, and I'm satisfied. I can walk the same street every day just a few blocks from our house and I feel like I accomplished something life changing. Beauty saturates this place, but not in the most obvious of ways, which makes the snippets of beauty all the more important for me to savor. So this is the beginning of a series, a seed that I've held in my pocket for years and man, it feels good to finally take it out and put it in the ground. 

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Ten on Ten • May

I stumbled upon the ten on ten project a few months ago and the idea really resonated with me, but we were staying in D.C. and at that point in our lives every little thing was heavy and hard to manage. I read the words 'finding life and beauty in the ordinary things of our day to day' and thought yes, that's something I can get behind and participate in. There is so much noise on the internet these days and the world is so linked through blogs and news and Pinterest and Twitter (and whatever social media app I'm trying to ignore because when will it end?). I would love to be apart of spreading snippets of beauty into people's lives and bringing them joy. That's really what I want this space to be about everyday. That's really what I want my life to be about everyday. Technically this is ten on eleven, but I knew that I would want to document Mother's Day and I've been trying to live out our days a bit slower with less technology involved, so I didn't want to be behind the camera all day two days in a row.

It's been a little over a month since we moved here and I've just now begun to have the energy to attempt to get into a rhythm again. One of the funniest things about moving to a new place for me is that even if you worked hard to get there and you want to be there, it never 100% feels like home from the start. This is the closest I've ever been to feeling 100% at home right away, but it has still taken some effort and adjustments and we're still working on making this place feel like ours. Most days we still feel tourists just fumbling around the city. I'm convinced that there are certain days and moments and places that all add up to make a place home. It's like a cosmic jar of fireflies, but coffee shops and laughs and wanders through the park replace the fireflies and they all come together in layers to paint a picture that makes you say 'this is home to me and I never want to leave it.' I've been craving a day like that, a moment like that since we got here as a reassurance I guess. I'm not sure. I know we're supposed to be here. I spent the last five or more years of my life homesick for this place, a place I was never able to call home until now. I used to come and see those city moms with their city kids and I'd carry a longing home with me to someday raise a baby here, but I was sure it would never come to be. So I know it's home. I just need to collect a few more fireflies for that jar of mine.

We got a good start on that this weekend. Alex wandered down to the corner bodega (It's really just a grocery store, but I can't help but love that people call them bodegas here.) the night before and surprised me with a bouquet of flowers. He'd been gone for four days and if you know us, you know we don't fare well apart so when I questioned him about the flowers he responded 'I had to come home with flowers. It felt like I was coming home from a deployment!.' I opened the door as Ev rounded the corner at a marathon pace squealing with uncontainable joy. Papa was on one knee to scoop his girl up and she spotted those flowers and pulled them right out of his arms - 'FWOWAHS! Oh, dank you, Papa! Dank you.' and she sniffed and sniffed them. For as long as I've known him, I've told him not to buy me flowers. There's something morbid about watching something so beautiful die a quicker death than if you just left them in the ground where they belong. I'm warming up to the idea as the years pass though. Among many other reasons, that's how I knew he was a keeper - I told him not to buy me flowers and he did anyway because what kind of woman doesn't like fresh flowers? He always manages to pick the ones that really do look like me.

So I woke up to these flowers on Sunday morning and smiled. I appreciated them the only way I know how - with a camera in my hand and the morning light streaming through the windows. We cooked a banana pancake breakfast, packed a picnic, and caught the train up to Park Slope for church. Ev was proud to present a Peony to me after church and this may sound ridiculous, but it was absolutely the most perfect flower I've ever held in my hands. I never knew it, but it seems Peonies are my favorite flower. We walked a few blocks to Prospect Park and staked our claim on a patch of shade with adequate grass. Picnic spot picking is always a big production for this family. The weather was flawless. We finished our picnic and put Ev down for a nap. We sat in the grass next to her and we both exhaled for the first time in weeks. We talked like we haven't talked in months and sat in silence like we haven't sat in silence in months with the sounds of a guitar playing nearby. Ev woke up and we all wandered and took pictures and wandered some more until our feet were blistered and our legs were aching. It was a heart filling, soul nourishing kind of day.

P.S. They've reset the votes over on Top Baby Blogs. It would be really lovely if you all would send

in a vote for HMRM. Being listed on the front page over there has brought a lot of growth to this

little space and I'm excited about the things to come - I'd love for you all to be a part of it.