Last weekend we packed up our family to go hiking in Shenandoah National Park. It is just over an hour drive to the entrance of the park. Jay and I had been hiking there before and loved it so we decided to find some easy trails that we could take the stroller and girls on.
Last fall when Jay and I went we saw a mommy bear with her three cubs as we were in our car driving to our lodge at dusk. We were shocked to actually see a bear "in the wild" and I was secretly happy that we saw them from the comfort of our car. Little did we know that we would see ANOTHER BEAR on our hike, and this time we were 1.5 miles back into the woods, without the safety of the car, and with our two kids!! So, I realize that there has never been a bear attack in Shenandoah but I am a bit scared of them. And when you come within 30 yards of one it becomes so much more real. Jay saw it right away and we all stopped dead in our tracks. We watched it for a couple minutes and took some pictures. Emma saw it and kept whispering that "we have to be quiet because there is a bear." The bear also saw us and kept staring, but it did not move. We couldn't believe that it didn't run away from us. I quickly decided that we had to turn around because it was sitting on the trail where we needed to go and I was not about to sit and wait to see if it would get mad at us. Let's just say that Jay didn't exactly argue with me about turning around!! I swear I checked behind us 1000 times on our 1.5 mile trek out of the woods to make sure that the bear wasn't coming after us. Whew - it sure was cool to see a bear in the woods, but I am happy to be back in my home blogging about it and not facing it again!
Overall, we had a great day with gorgeous views of the mountains. Jay and I both laughed at Emma because she said probably 10 times, "It sure is quiet in the woods!"
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| Daddy hitting a bit of an uphill climb |
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| This friendly little guy was waiting for us around a corner about 1.5 miles back into the woods. He wasn't willing to move for us either, so we had to turn around in our tracks! |
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| Our beautiful picnic lunch view |
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| What is this? Both girls looking at me AND smiling?!? I don't believe it! |
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| Daddy hand in hand with both girls:) |
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| Beautiful Shenandoah National Park |
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| Another friendly animal we stumbled upon |
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| At one point we had to ditch the stroller because of rocky terrain and Anna got a fun ride on Daddy's shoulders |
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| Anna's silly face |
We have had a super busy week with Anna's doctors appointments (4 in one week!!). In a very short synopsis the neurologist finally got back from vacation and read her kidney ultrasound. We were very concerned about it because she had developed a lot more cysts and AML's. He didn't have a lot to say regarding the results except that she would have to be more closely monitored and that he was fairly confident that she does not have polycystic kidney disease. Double YAY!! That was really all we wanted to hear. He did refer us to a nephrologist to get a more clear picture of what is going on with her kidneys. We don't see him until August.
She also had a 24 hour EEG done. She had to wear the equipment at home for a day. She really didn't mind it at all and kept patting her head and saying "hat." She also loves backpacks and had to carry the monitor around in a mini backpack all day, which made her very happy. We will get these results within the next week or two.
Today we saw her developmental specialist. She got another awesome report and the doctor said that she scored at "well over 2 years" in her receptive vocabulary (words she understands.) They recommended to continue her speech therapy to work on her expressive speech, which continues to be her only area of delay. Jay and I have noticed even in the past week her starting to want to imitate more words and becoming more vocal. This makes mommy very happy!!
Have a good weekend! We are headed to our local festival called "Celebrate Fairfax" to hit up some fun rides and fair food. I am hoping to find some elephant ears. Sunday will probably bring us to the pool for some fun in the sun:)
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| All smiles despite having to wear her silly "hat" |
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