Beat down at Bennington

Oh MAN, yesterday we had such a fun adventure! We drove all the way to Walla Walla, which is just over 90 minutes away. Jeff ran a 5.6 mile trail race called Beat down at Bennington. There were only about 30-40 people in the race. It was cute and small. I am not really in race mode right now--I'm just maintaining a moderate level of fitness through the winter and not really in the mood for speedy racing. That's convenient because someone has to watch the kids while their parents race! So after we saw the race start and the runners had disappeared down the trail, I took the kids on an exciting ramble through the wilds around Bennington Lake. It was kind of cold in the wind, and I was glad I decked Amber out in her puffy snowsuit and mittens. She looked like a little pink and black ewok, all bundled up! I forgot to bring a baby-carrying device, so Amber ambled around a bit on her own before she got frustrated from tripping on the uneven ground and falling every other second. I ended up carrying her in my arms and on my shoulders alternately for the entire hour we were a-wandering. I am shaky-sore today from traversing terrain bearing that extra weight!

Waiting for the race to start. Are they all smiling at the same time? Woah.

 SERIOUSLY, toddlers in snowsuits! Amber has been wearing a giant size 3T snowsuit all winter (unable to walk anywhere in it), but last week I found one in her size for 99 cents at Goodwill. It was worth every penny, haha. She fell over and over outside and never got cold. And the cuteness factor: Marshmallow Ewok Amber!

They're off! Jeff is in orange.

The runners: racing past the drained lake

This week Amber developed a love of raisins. She adores them. Her little mouth works in the funniest positions to shift the rubbery raisins onto her half-grown teeth. It's awesome.

There are 20 miles of trails winding through the Bennington Lake recreation area. We started off down a nice little path, but then decided to do some freestyle hiking. We left the trail and skidded down a muddy slope into a little ravine. The lake is drained each winter and I think we were in the creek bed where the water rolls in towards the lake. There were enough rocks, sticks, and mud to satisfy the kids' wildest dreams, and they played while we wandered around. Then we climbed out the other side of the creek bed/ditch/mini ravine and picked our way through tall grass and prickles up up up to the top of a nice big hill. It was cold and breezy, but the view was a satisfying, sweeping 360 degrees of windswept golden grasses and rolling hills fringed in trees, with a mostly drained lake on one side. There was even a convenient little bench up there. We saw horseback riders pass, and even got to cheer for some runners (including Jeff) as they huffed their way along the trail. After I indulged my photographic fancy in that tall tickle-y grass, we wended our way back down the hill and through some tall sharp plants, across the drained lake bottom, and back up to the parking lot and race finish line. I felt a stab and looked down to find that my legs were covered in big sharp burrs! Do you know how hard it is to remove burrs while wearing gloves? What about removing burrs while wearing gloves and holding a 1-year-old? It was hilariously hard, with plenty of flicking and hand shaking, ending with me finally just taking off a glove to finish the de-burring job. When I was combing Rose's hair before bed that night, I found another big ole burr buried in her bun!

 Amber's perch and our big tall shadow.

 Suddenly Jeff emerged from the trees! He said the hills were killing him. We're both quite sore. I think the people in the race were surprised to see one adult and three small kids in the middle of nowhere, cheering them on. It was fun to see their faces when they passed us.

 Horses!!

 Jay reads everything.

 Contemplating the view.

In spite of the physically taxing nature of our nature ramble, we all had a great time. We don't live near any "wilds" as it were, and even when we go to the Cascades to camp and hike, we have to stick to marked trails to "preserve the delicate alpine ecosystem" of course. So it was especially fun to wander. I hope we were allowed to do that. They allow hunting at that park, so I assumed that if shooting innocent animals was ok, wandering off the trails would be ok too. Bonus: since it was 39 degrees and January, we didn't have to worry about meeting any scary snakes on our way through the tall grass. It was a peaceful feeling not to worry about reptiles. After we found Jeff post-race (he ran 5.6 miles at a 6:14 pace and finished 4th, Mr. Awesome that he is) we traded off. I tied on my running shoes and dashed out for a little trot on the trails. It was just what I needed! Solitude, running, trails, and vistas. Laaa! Why would I want to PAY to run with a bunch of loud unknown people on a trail when I can wait for them to go away and run by myself? I even ended up following the arrows for the race course since I didn't really know where to go on that web of trails. I cut off a bit of the course so we could go get the kids some lunch at a normal hour, but still got in my 4 miles. I was feeling that hour long baby-carrying trek for my entire run!

 At one point in our ramble, Jay turned to me and said "I'm having FUN! This is WAY more fun than I thought it was going to be!"

 They called themselves explorers. Amber just wanted out of that hood.

 Jay's face says it all: it was tickle-y and prickly during this part of our return. The kids were up to their ears in the plants! I had to set Amber down on the other side of the thicket and go back to help blaze a path through for Jay and Rose. When I was running on the trails after our walk, I saw a path through this stuff maybe 20 or 30 feet beyond where we entered the thicket. Hah! But we had been walking and walking and finding nothing, so we didn't know the trail was that close and chose to delve into the prickles to expedite our return. I'm sure there's a lesson there.

 Walking across the dry lake bottom, after emerging from the burr-y brambles.

We made it back to the van!

We ate lunch at our old favorite drive-in (Sonic-style) burger place, Fast Eddy's. Yum. Hamburgers are deeply satisfying, especially after a long morning of trekking through the wilderness in the cold. The only downside was that I was simply too cold to get one of their fantastic milkshakes. Jeff got a raspberry shake and shared a few bites with all of us. And he was freezing for the rest of the day! Oh, sacrifices. After lunch we drove past some of our old haunts, like we always do when we visit Walla Walla: the hospital where Jay was born, the two apartments in next-door College Place that we lived in 7 (!) years ago, and of course we had to stop at the beloved Lions Park in College Place. It's been two years since we visited that area, and we sure love that park! The creek, the ducks, and the playground are all favorites. We only stayed for half an hour or so though, because Amber was getting worn out and weepy. She wanted to go swimming and catch a duck, and when I didn't let her wade into the frigid creek, that was the final straw. She was asleep in her car seat before we hit the highway, and thank goodness for Jim Dale and Harry Potter #4 or else the rest of us would have fallen asleep on the drive home too!

 She was so padded out and rumpled, little ewok with her snowsuit cankles and furry hood.

I have a picture of each one of our kids in this lion swing. They have replaced the cool old-school yellow baby swings with the standard [safer] baby swings since our last visit, but the purple handed lion is still there.

And who can resist a million pictures of a happy baby swinging?

 Can you even stand her pink saddle shoes with bows?

 Little mittens, holding on tight.

 She was really swingin'! It looks like she was about to get dumped out, but she never fell. I'm not sure it's possible to fall out of these bucket swings.

Jay spent most of his time with the ducks by the creek. He saved some of his hamburger bun to feed them, and some nice people gave him a piece of their bread to feed them too. He also kept asking me if he could try jumping across the creek. I told him if he really thought he could make it, he could try but he had to accept the consequences if he missed. Ha, he decided not to risk it. 

Whew, what a fun, exhausting family outing. We left at 7:30 am and got home eight hours later. We love nature. And we love Walla Walla!