The Perfect Columbus Day

Monday was the perfect day, if such a thing possibly exists. Jason had work off for Columbus Day--bank holidays are a great perk when working for a non-profit organization. As soon as the sun came up, he dropped me off at the top of Snow Canyon and went home to shuttle Brooklyn off to school, drop Talia off at preschool, and volunteer in the Spanish kindergarten classroom. Meanwhile, I broke in a new pair of Asics by running ten miles home. The stretch through the canyon was so stunningly beautiful that despite the effort of running, my soul was lifted.

Mid-day was spent getting organized at home, running errands, and supervising the lunchtime Mileage Club at the elementary school. (The PTA has our family quite busy lately, but that's another story for another day.) The moment school let out, however, we grabbed Brooklyn and took a 25 minute drive to nearby Gunlock.

At first we headed for a tiny and lesser-known pool nestled off a back-road in the mountainside.

Gorgeous from a distance, but when we got close, we discovered that this gem is sadly not obscure enough. Most of the waterfront was marred with tons of broken glass and trash. On the positive side, it illustrated a lesson that my children won't soon forget: the selfish and destructive consequences of littering. Truth to be told, even if the place had been well-cared for, we probably wouldn't have stayed terribly long. This pond was MUDDY! I'm all about sensory experiences, but feeling your feet sink into this goop was a bit much. Eli refused to get even close to it.

Always a Mama's Boy.

Not surprisingly, Brooklyn still had fun.


Talia was a bit more subdued in the muck, so we decided to move on.

Here we are exploring the dam at Gunlock Reservoir.

The only people around, it felt slightly eerie and lonely to be isolated in this powerful landscape.

Jason phrased it perfectly when he said that the mountains felt prehistoric. You half-expected to see a brontosaurus (oh, excuse me, apatosaurus*) come crashing through the brush.
*Wikipedia just informed me that the term brontosaurus is now considered a "popular but obsolete synonym." At the ripe old age of 30-something, isn't my vocabulary quaint? Good thing I have kids to straighten me out...

Back to the prehistoric trees..


While we didn't see any dinosaurs, we did spot these interesting
Talia tracks--solid proof that her feet rarely touch the ground.

Pure energy in motion...

...with a splash of sass thrown in.

Meanwhile, Brooklyn diligently cared for the plants growing in her sandy garden.

Grandpa Charles would have been proud.

Jason made amends for skipping the mud at our prior swimming hole by braving the cold (and algae-abundant) water.

Brrr!

I, on the other hand, managed to simultaneously get in the water and stay completely dry.

Of course, I had a job to do on the picnic table: protect the chips from tiny snitching Talia fingers.

Eli absorbed the fun quite contentedly from the comfort of his stroller.

As the sun started to set, however, we knew it was time to head back and fix dinner.


Grilled hamburgers beneath a flaming sunset. Life doesn't get much better.

Truly, the perfect ending to a perfect day.