Last Beautiful Day of Fall: Take 2

Ok, so we thought that November 1st was going to be the last beautiful day of fall. Turns out yesterday (the 6th) was another one. Jared already had plans to attend the last ISU paintball practice of the year, and I really wanted to go into town to pick up some library books we had on hold, as well as our pottery pieces we had painted earlier in the week. With 3 hours between dropping Jared off and the library and pottery place opening, Emma and I went for a hike. Sadly, our first of the year.

I have wanted to take Emma hiking, but with Jared's school class load, we haven't been able to get it scheduled. I was too nervous to take Emma on my own. I mean, what would happen if I fell and broke my leg, or suddenly lost consciousness, or got attacked by a bear?!?

Considering the type of hiking, my health, and the area we would most likely hike in, none of these are really likely. Possible, but not likely.

So, on Saturday, when we realized that it was suppose to be pretty nice out on Sunday, I decided Emma and I would go for a hike while Jared played paintball.

Sunday morning, Emma was really excited to go for a hike and kept asking if it was time to leave yet. Finally, we headed into town. Emma and I dropped Jared off then stopped at the outdoor place and picked up a cheap, super loud whistle (you know, just in case), then headed for the woods.

It was chilly walking through the prairie grass with nothing to stop the wind. 

We chased quite a few of these little hoppers.

A hole in a tree. 

I would have loved to have been able to miniaturize ourselves and take a tour of this little critter home.

Once we had hiked a bit, and got into the trees, we were a lot warmer.

The letter "Y"- I sense a future theme

A leaf "as big as Da's face!"

I didn't take very many pictures, but I am really proud of myself anyway. I typically like to rush Emma when we are walking. Even if we have no where to go. I really want to stop doing that, and I am happy to say that for all by the last 15 minutes of our hike, I was able to repress the, "Ok, let's go" comment from popping out of my mouth. After the first two tongue bitings, I began to relax and just enjoy the atmosphere and company. 

The reason for the slight rush during the last 15 minutes? We got lost, and instead of an hour long hike, it ended up being an hour and 45 minutes. And we still needed to get to the library and the pottery place before we had to pick Jared up. We still really enjoyed the last 15 minutes, even though we were both tired. That is when we saw most of the animal prints (that I should have taken pictures of).

We had made plans ahead of time to stop for some hot coco after our hike while we waited for the library and the pottery place to open. Thankfully, we had finished up our hike and gotten back to town with 15 minutes to go before everything opened. Just enough time for hot coco and tiramisu. 

She thought it looked yummy and wanted to try it. Turns out she really liked it, and I didn't. Lucky her :)

I couldn't get over how cute she looked sipping her hot coco from the mug almost as big as her face, so I took a bunch of pictures. Almost as many as I took while hiking. 

Yes, I am a dork, and it is a great thing to be :)