Pink sandals = hiking shoes

The first weekend we lived in Massachusetts, we went to the White Mountains in New Hampshire to hike. Here's proof (at least proof that Steve was there - apparently there are no pictures of the two of us that day).

We remember the trip fondly and have returned to NH a number of times, once even with the X-treme Jensens. Anyhow, we wanted to return to that first hike this weekend as a sort of last hurrah for adventuring in New England. It was long and flat and had fantastic waterfalls to picnic beside. Luckily, we didn't go because the drive seemed like too much for Grace. So we picked a slightly closer hike in southern New Hampshire instead.

Gorgeous spring day and Grace slept for the entire drive. Then, we failed to find the trailhead on the side of the highway. So we clutched and decided to try an alternate route to the top of Mt. Monadnock, which we had hiked once before, pre-Grace, and had a fabulous time. Grace was psyched to be in the Ergo, babbling away like crazy, kicking and laughing and playing drop-the-map-daddy-pick-it-up. For about 10 minutes. Then, she started screaming and crying so we thought we'd carry her and let her walk a bit. And then she kept yanking off her hat, so we put sunscreen in her eye. Not on purpose, but the water we then had to pour on her eye didn't help matters and she was a screaming, howling mess. We were determined to at least get to a decent picnic spot, so we kept chugging, screamer and all. Welcome to parenthood. I remember being the screamer, or at least the whiner, on many a hike.

It took several tries for Grace not to be scowling in this shot.

Apparently, she was hungry and that hiker's adage that food tastes better outside was absolutely true. We found a lovely meadow with a big rock and a great view of the hills. Grace gobbled down her lunch and resumed being the sweetest, happiest baby ever. We threw in the towel, realizing it was ridiculous to think we could make it to the top of the mountain and make the two hour drive back and take another load to Goodwill.

Thirsty hiker - no hands!

We headed down, and apparently that's when Grace's inner hiker really emerged. Holding onto both of us, she plowed down the rocky trail like it was flat carpet, in fact better than she walks on flat carpet. She was going over rocks, stepping down off rocks and plowing right through them (why bother going around?) like nobody's business. Steve and I couldn't stop laughing. So, despite the rocky start, it ended up being a lovely day. Grace snoozed again on the way home while we enjoyed the picturesque New England towns, all white clapboard against endless green trees.

Whaddya mean you can't hike in sandals?

All the pictures here, including one of my favorite Steve-Grace sequences ever.