Hikes

We spent 'Black Friday' and 'Cyber Monday' both out hiking with friends.  I just discovered today is 'Giving Tuesday'.  These 'holidays' along with every other holiday on the calendar are all manufactured obligations that don't mean anything and yet all manage to make people scramble like mad to decorate, buy things and eat particular foods.  It's amazing how many folks toss themselves at it, adding stress to lives and budgets that are already full.  I wish MORE people would check out of the insanity and spend a few hours walking on a trail with a buddy or two.

Friday, we went to join the Huntsville Teen Scene on a hike to the Natural Well.  We arrived early and went with Kurt, Alex, Emma and Mars down the McKay Hollow Trail and intersected the end of the Natural Well Trail and hiked that to the other end at the hiker's parking lot for a total of 3.5 miles.  We met up with the teen scene folks as well as Inde, Owen, Oliver, Katy and her mom, sister, BIL, Lucky and FIL! Katy's sister is currently as I type, about to have her second baby.  She ran around contracting and we thought maybe yesterday, but Baby Grape is staying put...for now.  Ben might get to share his birthday,,,we'll see.

Saturday, Ben and Matt, Emma and Kurt ran their first 10k.  They did great!
Sunday, we all laid around being sore.  I was sore from the hike-hills are tough.

Monday, we headed to Birmingham to do First Avenue Rocks-they have a homeschool deal on Mondays.  When we got to Fultondale where we stopped to eat lunch at Full Moon BBQ (giant taters!) it was NOT raining.  It's been raining here for days.  I called a friend in town and she said it hasn't rained there at all.  ACK!  The boys QUICKLY decided they'd rather be outside, so I tossed out a few options.  Birmingham has MANY hiking spots right there in town.  Moss Rock was nearly picked, but Red Mountain won.  So, off we went!

After checking in with Matt and Amanda so they'd know about our change in plans, we hit the trails and hiked 4 miles, meandering around a while and ending up at Grace's Point, which is still a lovely trail.  We went about 3 years ago, in March and there was SO much stuff on the ground-tiles, metal, glass and loads of things like an old radio and so on.  That's ALL been cleaned up now, at least the trails we took.  It's an archaeological site, so 'cleaned up' isn't the right wording.  Removed, I guess. I hope by the people who were supposed to remove them and not random hikers.

Let's look a this more closely:

Aaaaaaaaaaa!

Monday:

this is very much a 'humor her so we can get back to the car' shot.  

Since we were so close, I drove us to the little park at Helena so the kids could see it.
We are planning a return in the spring with more friends and some hammocks.

I really like this light pole in the woods.

I love the blue and purple blend, and that she's letting her roots grow in.  It feels very organic and exotic at the same time. Perfect for a 17 year old-they are a little alien already.

The boys stayed over for Ben's birthday, we polished off an entire turkey tenderloin, a pot of rice, a pot of Indian cottage cheese and curry and some chickpeas with some kind of spiced gravy. Yum!