This World We Live In...: Great Falls, again.

Thursday, February 5, 2009

Great Falls, again.

For some reason Scott and I are drawn to hiking in weird weather. Last spring, when it topped 100F in the beginning of June and everyone else in DC was hiding inside with the AC cranked, we headed to Great Falls National Park for the sweatiest hike ever (verified by Guinness). Last weekend, when Sunday's temp reached the low fifties (not bad for January), we returned ready to brave the lingering snow wearing our sandals.

We weren't hoping to catch pneumonia, that's just the best footwear either of us have for traversing the trails since our hiking boots are waiting, bored and dejected, back in Iowa City. And I'd have to say the sandals did pretty well as the snow melted and the trails turned to slushy mud. However, Scott and I couldn't have looked too suave hippity hopping about the trail trying not to soak our feet in 32F mush. I blame the poor footing for our measly rate of covering about four miles in four hours but the time spent eating our picnic, and Scott and Pavlina's snowball throwing contest must be factored in.

It may not be clear from the pictures, but Pavlina's went further. Sorry Daddy.

1 comment:

kaelene said...: Hiya Heather, Scott, and Pav! We sure miss you guys and just wanted to see what you have been up to lately! Hope you have a great weekend! Love, the Harrison's; March 21, 2009 at 4:08 AM

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Favorite Quotes

"Then can we borrow someone else's daughter for a long, long time so I can have a sister?" After we told her we didn't plan on having a baby brother or sister for her anytime soon.
"I don't want to go to work like you Daddy. Its boring. You would have to take a lot of toys and just go to sleep."
"I want to be Mama, who doesn't go to work like Daddy and who doesn't go to school like me, who just stays around and goes shopping." I wish.
"She's younger than you, Pav." "Why?" "Because she was born after you were." "So I beat her. If she was born after I was that means I won the game." There was no pause to think about that statement. She just rolled right through it.
"...but bad witches, they bite."
"I'm very angry about the possibility. It makes me cross." Pav piped up while Gammy was giving Papa a talking to in the car.
"O, L, D. Old. Hey! We just spelled you guys!" gesturing to Gammy and Papa. We all had a good guffaw.
"Look, the ballerinas are playing top to top." About the cheerleaders at a Hawkeye pregame.
"I met the Golden Girl! Her skin was even softer than yours."
"Herky was so nice. He didn't bite at all!"
"Grandma, you're getting old" says Pav. "What makes you say that?" asks Grandma. "Your toe has a crack in it. I have a crack too, Grandma. A butt crack." Why do kids always talk so loud? I wonder.
"Pav, come look at this. Do you know what this is? It is coprolite which is fossilized poop. It is poop that is so old it turned to rock." Heather, pointing to a museum case. "Its poop? Someone pooped in there?" Pav, pointing to case. "No, something pooped outside a long time ago and then it sat for a really long time and turned to rock and a man found it and put it in the case." "Who pooped outside?! I bet that guy pooped outside." Pav, pointing to a man walking very close by. "No sweets, this was a long time ago. Millions of years ago. The person who pooped outside has been dead for a long time." That's sad" pouting. "What would life be like if I were a ping pong ball?" Pav says, skipping away.
"Come here, duck. Quack on my feet." To the ducks in the fountain.
"There's a blumen hiding in there." I've no idea where she learned blumen.
"Mama, when you grow all up and be a boy, you're gonna have whiskers like him and have to shave." Pointing at Dad.
"Gammy made me put some of her cream on my nipple on my knee to make it go away." About a bug bite.
"Mama," Pav says in her sorrowful voice, "I'm so sorry that you can't shake a booty with me."
"You're not a woman. You're a mom." I told her a woman was a grown up girl and she told me this.
"Is he really a mean mommy?" about a man I told her was "in the army" because she said he looked "dressed up and dirty in his fatigues.
"Because they'll hit us and we'll die and our clothes will be ruined and that would be sooo sad." About holding hands in the street.
"Look Mama, a half moom. I like half moons. They're my favorite food."
"Jesus, Palmer!" Pav, when Papa had to slam on the brakes. For once I wasn't the one to blame for teaching the child to swear; Gammy's face turned bright red.
"That naughty tea bag. It's supposed to hold it's mama's hand while it goes in the river." About my tea bag that's tag broke off and then split open while I was adding the water.
"Look Mama, a grassblower." Pointing out a lawnmower.
"Mama, I'm sorry I had an accident yesterday. I didn't want to have an accident. It was the poop's fault."
Thump! "Pav, are you OK?!" Long pause. "I didn't get hit." said Pav with emphasis on I.
...my Gramma Marlys, I like her hair. And the noise that comes out of her mouth."
"See this? This is Cinderella, who doesn't have a hairy chest."
"Mama smell my armpits, they're flavored!" Scott let Pav try his deodorant.
"You can run me a hot, itchy, hair bath with white Bella hair in it and black bella hair in it and bubbles and bath toys in it." Pav.
"You're a hungry girl tonight!" Pav to her dad.
Mama, can we jump out of the airplane, please?"
"And blah, blah, blah." Pav, finishing up her long description of what she had done the day before.
"This is my bottom, it is related to me and I wear it all the time." Pav, accepting her dad's compliments on her cute bottom.
"The tiger bit you!" Pav to her dad after he dropped her toy tiger.
"I don't like Bella chewing this up. Makes me cross." Pav, complaining about Bella's toy being broken. I suspect she had more to do with it than the cat.
"Gammy, do you ONLY talk when you are talking with someone else?" After carrying on an elaborate conversation with herself in the car for quite some time.
"Mama, I know my letters of the elephant." After listing off the animals on her new African safari tent.
"Birdie, you smell like cheese!" Pav, following a very wet kiss from Birdie the beagle. Unfortunately her pronunciation is quite clear at this point so Birdie's master found the whole incident a bit embarrassing.
Pav: "What are we shopping for?" Scott: "We are looking for mommy and daddy." Pav: "Ok, you go downstairs and hide and I will come find you!"
"There is another red car; I like red cars. Daddy, we should buy some." Pav's comments upon counting the number of red cars that she can spot during the morning drive to preschool.
"If I eat too much, I will have a big tummy, and Mama will be in my uterus." Pav, waiting impaitently for lunch.
"You're not lazy, Dada. You're just a man." She's intuitive, for 2.5 years old.
"I want phone, milk phone." Pav, asking for foamed milk from our new espresso machine.
"Mama, I'm just going to put you in the tub and drain you." Pav, after being told she needed to sit on the potty.
"Are we going to Cheese Cactory Fake?" Pav, as we drove by a Cheesecake Factory.
"Could you open the door, and then walk out?" Pav, wanting me to leave her alone so she could be naughty.
"It got down, Mommy. I can't reach it." Pav, reaching down her throat after the cherry pit she just swallowed.
"I Like Juice; it is very (awkwardly long pause and Pav's I am serious face here) juicy!" Pav, reflecting on the finer qualities of juice to mom & dad after they told her that she should take some with her in the car because she was sick.
"Do you promise not to break it again, Daddy?" Pav, to Scott after we had just fixed something she had broken.
"Um, oh. (Swallow). Rum floats." Scott, drinking a mojito. Timing and the fact that his mouth was full when he said this was key to the humor here.
"Soccer... chair... heart attack... old lady... a**hole." Heather, after a rigorous game of soccer-keep-away with S & P. (Note: the last bit was after Scott successfully kicked the soccer ball at her back as she headed for a chair.)
"Pav, you have to hold a hand in the street." says Mom. "I will just hold my hand, by myself." says Pav, clasping her hands in front of her.
Walter: "How old are you getting to be now?" Pavlina: "I'm 18." W: "You're pretty small for 18." P: "I am very very small... But I'll really wear you out."
"Flying poo." Pav sneezed in Scott's face so he asked her if she had bird flu or swine flu.
"Flopsy, Mopsy and Cottontail." Pav, in answer to Grammy's question about the names of Pav's preschool classmates.
"You pee now, like Daddy big penis?" Pav to the man next to Scott at the urinals.
"We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children." ~Native American Proverb
"No, I pooped." Pav to Scott when he told her she smelled good and asked if she was wearing perfume.
"In our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next seven generations." From The Great Law of the Iroquios Confederacy
"I tried to turn off the 'blink, blink, blink' and instead got 'wtschchwtsch.'" Heather, driving in DC traffic and trying to explain why the emergency blinkers were on and the radio was blasting white noise.
"I want it to show fear." Heather, jumping up and down and stomping to scare a cockroach back into the sewer.
"Please?" Pav's reply to Dada asking her to say "ice cream."
"Boy." Pavlina to Dada after he asked if she was a girl or a boy.
"Nope." Pavlina to Dada after he asked if she like Mama, or Dada better.
"Is this exciting for you? Then look interested." Papa (Grampa Steward) to Pavlina, trying to keep her attention while reading her a story.
"Well, I'm pleased, but I can't really say that's due to good judgement on her part." Papa, when I told him Pavlina was enamored with him.