Visited Foothills Park today

There's a nature preserve south of Palo Alto that is open to Palo Alto residents (and their guests) only, called Foothills Park. 50 years ago, when the city was buying the land for the park, they offered to share the cost with other nearby cities, which all turned down the offer. Apparently, the city of Palo Alto was a bit miffed, so they decided that the park they bought would be open to their residents only.

It was beautiful! I'm so glad we didn't let the threat of mountain lions scare us into just staying home! Unfortunately, when I left our house we only had about an hour we could spend there, then I got lost on the way there, so by the time we got there we only had about 5 minutes we could be there. Undeterred, we got out and took some pics right off of Panorama Trail:

It's hard to get Jack to pose right. He gets all self-conscious and grimaces and arches his back. I would just take pictures without asking him to pose, but once he sees the camera in front of him he automatically poses (which is a good thing, but we need to work on that pose!). It's hard for me, b/c my son is hands-down the most handsome little boy on the planet, then these pics I take of him come out less than perfect, and it's sad b/c I can't show everyone just how adorable he is!

I offered to let him take some pics with the camera, but he wasn't interested. And then it was time to go :(

The outdoors here all smell so beautiful. Even right next to the bay, in the salt marsh that I expected to stink b/c it's a marsh, the smell was delightful. I wish I could describe it.

We don't take advantage of our proximity to this awesomeness nearly enough. I hereby declare every Monday: Nature Day! (Why Monday? B/c it is right now dedicated to reading, which we do every day.) We have beaches, mountains, grasslands, salt marshes, and fabulous sunny weather all within an hour from our house. It would be an absolute disgrace if we moved away from here without getting to know this land a little better!

I also have to brag on my son. We went to a Relief Society event tonight, a discussion of John chapter 15 and ice cream. I told Jack he would need to read the chapter with me so he could discuss it with us. I considered adding a "so you can eat ice cream" qualifier, but decided to hold out and see if he needed extra incentive. And he didn't! He sat and listened to the chapter, asked questions about words he didn't understand, laughed when I talked about "fruit" being good things that we do ("I never knew fruit could be that!" he said), and then happily played quietly while we ladies all discussed the chapter. I got so many compliments on my fabulous kids! (I was the only one who had her kids there; it wasn't really a kid-friendly event and I hadn't planned on taking them, but Tim had other commitments and I was NOT going to stay home and miss the ice cream!)

Good night, my friends!