Out in the Open Air

Once it turns cold I like to get out of the house. See, I don't particularly enjoy feeling hot or to sweat so I tend to take pleasure in outdoor activities during cold weather a lot more. Also, who wouldn't want to enjoy going on a walk on a crisp Autumn day and seeing all the yellow and red leaves falling?? So out we went on the Saturday before Halloween.

Riley wanted to ride his bike so we went to Seward Park where there's a straight paved trail, perfect for bike riding. But first we hit the playground.

Lake Washington also has its charm. I like that there are several parks along this lake and the views are all gorgeous no matter where you view it from. Obviously, lakes would be my choice to kayak or canoe. Like I've mentioned before, I'm somewhat apprehensive to partake in any water activities on the Puget Sound given that whales do swim there. I would probably get a heart attack if I would see a whale swimming next to me. NO thank you!

Riley's not quite ready to get off the training wheels yet but boy, can this kid disappear in a blink of an eye. We have to yell after him in order for him to stop and pedal back. He'll be ready when he's ready and to tell you the truth, he doesn't really get a chance to ride his bike often enough to be more confident on it. He did say he wants a horn since he doesn't have one yet. Maybe he'll get one for his birthday and it's just around the corner.

Jacob failed at trying to get closer to those two turtles on the log back there. He had climbed on the log that's laying behind him and he lost his footing and almost fell over, towards the water. I'm telling you, something funny always happens to him. Riley has so much fun laughing at his daddy's mishaps.

It was such a pleasant day. It was a tad chilly but nothing unbearable, it felt good to me. I sat down and got some sun while Jacob and Riley had fun on the swings.

Bare trees upon a mostly cloudy sky remind me so much of  M. Knight Shyamalan's movies especially The Village. I love that movie however, now that I think about it, I haven't seen it in a while. Welp, I guess it's time. Probably in the next few days.
I just love how everywhere you look here makes for a picturesque shot. At least that's how I view this state. I'm thankful I can spot the beauty when others might only see a tree without leaves which in their minds can be a sorrowful sight.

When we got home there was a package on the table waiting for me. I opened it and saw beautiful flowers. A sweet friend from TX that was visiting Oregon for a few days had them mailed to me. She was paying her respects for our loss. What a sweet gesture and she especially made me happy because flowers {and decorations for my home} are my love language. Getting this bouquet was also in part a memoriam for Reagan and that, I LOVE! The succulents are gorgeous. Wouldn't you agree?!

In the meantime, Jacob was making me sugar cookie dough. I just love sugar cookies so it's a must that we make some for the holidays.
This is what my Halloween mantle looked like this year. Subtle is more.

And while the cookies were baking Riley carved his pumpkin. Nathan also carved his and Jacob carved one in honor of Reagan.

And this is what they looked like. I liked Jacob's idea for Reagan's pumpkin. So sweet. It feels good including Reagan in our family traditions. I can tell Riley likes it too.

And we decided to go to The Cheesecake Factory to have some pumpkin cheesecake before Halloween came and went. I didn't want to miss out. We got there around 9:20 pm and we were surprised to see how crowded it was. It looked like if it was six o'clock in the evening! Crazy. This proves that we're not really into late night eating even if it's to enjoy some dessert and coffee. I told Jacob we're such old farts in that sense and honestly, I don't know when this became the norm for us and I really don't like it. So, we agreed that we would do more late night hang-outs on the weekends whenever possible. I don't want to be a hermit, not even when I'm old and Jacob agrees. I believe it's all how you think about things. I've seen old folk on their walkers or with canes out at night enjoying themselves. I don't ever want my "age" to stop me from enjoying life.

And the pumpkin cheesecake was very yummy but I wasn't able to finish it. 

It was such a nice day. 

Making A Decision ...

... to enjoy the journey.

Lately, I've been feeling edgy, impatient which is not acceptable to me. I've been feeling like my old self, like how I felt before I had my awakening and I don't like it. So my resolve starting today will be to not let frustrations/impatience get the best of me. I think I know why I've had a change in attitude and it's understandable but not right. Dying to self is the only way to live life peacefully. This is when I'm so thankful for His mercies ... thankful for a brand new day where I get the chance to start over and hope that I go back to feeling peaceful and not let my circumstances interfere with my attitude.

So, in order to enjoy the journey, this season that I'm in, I set out to do things that bring me joy. Because one needs to pursue things that pull at our heart.
Besides reading which is one of my passions, {currently reading Secrets to Exceptional Living by Joyce Meyer} I also love to be out in nature. I would say that nature is my first passion. This is a great way to clear the mind and to exercise it by taking in all the beauty around me ... making it a point to observe everything from the big to the small. Sometimes, we do need to leave the four corners of our house and go exploring. Nature is so calming.

Plus, being out in nature is a good way to exercise not to mention that this is one of the best ways for a young child to spend his energy on.
Jacob accidentally grabbed the wrong bike helmet. This one fits him too snug but he wore it anyway.

Motherhood is tough work. I think it's more mentally draining than anything else. This is why I need to pursue the things that bring me joy in life. I need regular moments of refreshment and restoration that will refill my soul ... and this is also were reading books on faith come in as well.

Like anybody, kids need balance I know that but I prefer to have Riley explore nature, the outdoors than taking him to play at a playground. I notice the difference in Riley. He's much calmer, tends not to fret as much and I also think it's good for his little soul as well. Exploring nature is one of the best things I can introduce my child to so he can flourish.

I think God gave me a strong willed child to teach me how to be a better human being overall. Some days have been extremely challenging while mostly it's been an easy ride with him too. But the toughest times seem to stand out a little more ... probably because I'm stubborn and have a hard time with change. I need to learn to be more compassionate and patient. I think this is a good thing, that I know what I need to work on, that's a start. It means that I admit my faults and that I want to be a better mother, person overall.

Until we learn to derive lessons from seasons of failure and loss, we will keep repeating those failures ... digging ourselves into an ever deeper hole rather than moving on as we grow up.
I'm sure we've all been there. Not wanting to listen to that small voice and instead remaining stubborn and continue to behave capriciously. I know I've done it and I've come across loved ones who have behaved this way too.

So I will make the best of a hard day. When I'm feeling overwhelmed I've got to remember to change my train of thought back to positive thinking. I will try to refrain from becoming snappy. I just need to remember to be gentler with myself during these challenging times. This is the key to loving others well.
I need to concentrate solely on the good.

Evening Walk

Warm evenings are all but gone now ... but on the last warm summer evening we went out on a walk.

I believe the temp was in the low 80's. We brought Riley's bike. At first he was pedaling fast and leaving us behind. Several times we had to yell his name and waved him to come back. Although we told him to stay in front of us he somehow uses the entire trail, going from one side to the other. I had to constantly look behind us to make sure that no cyclists or runners were coming by fast. It would be so embarrassing if Riley got in their way and made someone fall. I can totally picture it too.

At about a mile and a half we stopped along the water so Riley could play with the rocks for a while. We didn't spend too much time here because we still had a ways to go and didn't want to have to finish the trail in the dark.

We continued with our walk but at the two mile post Riley got tired of riding his bike and decided he wanted to walk instead. Jacob had the fun job of pulling his bike the rest of the trail and back to the car.

During the summer we tend to leave the house after lunch, say 2/3 pm. Full sun and warm weather is not particularly a favored season. Our weekends start out slow and once mid afternoon comes around we begin to get ready to be out and about. I especially like to go on walks around 5:00 pm. My body seems to recharge during the late afternoons into the early evenings ... plus the scenery is very beautifully distracting which makes walking fun and not another mundane chore.

Aside from the ferries, islands, cloudy weather and parks that WA has to offer this state also has a multitude of trails with gorgeous scenic views. I really love walking and being able to do so along the Sound or one of the lakes, it is pretty amazing. My favorite of course is the Sound because you are able to smell that wonderful ocean smell.

Weekend Walk

I was just talking to Jacob about how awesome it is that we live in a state that has so much to offer and so much beauty. How we don't have to save for a long time in order to see and do cool things. We are able to go on mini vacations in our own state whenever it's possible. That's such a blessing.
I remember when we used to live in TX, we would plan then save so we could go on one big trip a year. That wasn't fun at all. The six years we lived in TX has been the only time that I felt trapped. TX is so big that at the time it wasn't feasible for us to go on a three day weekend road trip whenever the kids had an extra day off.  Either because we didn't have any trip money saved up or I wasn't able to get time off from work. We spent a lot of weekends at home. The only thing that saved us from dying of boredom especially during the summer months was that we lived in an awesome master planned community that had a lot to offer to its residents.
Although there's really not much to do in Tucson it's a good thing that Phoenix wasn't far and that San Diego was only a seven hour drive. Because of this, we still managed to do a lot of fun activities during our time there. That's when we got into going to farmers markets and U-pick farms.

Here in Washington there's endless things to do, just like back home in San Diego. Ever since I became a mother I always made it a point to do fun things over the weekend. I've learned how to plan family outings with little or no money needed whenever we weren't able to splurge.

In one week we visited two new parks ... two awesome parks at that! We've been here about a year and a half and we barely found out about these parks. I'm just glad that we now know about them.

The park we visited over the weekend was Seward Park which sits right off Lake Washington. There are two ways to reach this park. One way is to come from the Seattle side which you would first need to drive through somewhat of a bad area but then it gets nice. The other way is to come from Bellevue way. This is the best choice.
This park is super cool. It has several trails with the main one being a paved trail and not to mention Lake Washington surrounding the entire trail. Oh, and there's lots of trees that provide wonderful shade throughout.

This trail that we embarked on was a 2.4 mile loop. I didn't think much of it because I was too busy gawking at the water, boats and the houses along the shore. I was enjoying my walk, stopping whenever Riley stopped to pick up a flower or to pick up rocks. I was in no hurry whatsoever. I knew that Sydna and Nathan would get bored from all this stopping so I gave them the ok to go ahead of us and enjoy the trail at their own pace ... and so they left.
One thing I forgot to do before our walk was to stretch. BIG mistake!

It really was a nice day out even though I missed my clouds ... but there was a light breeze which made my walking experience an enjoyable one.
Sometimes the trail would get busy and other times there wasn't a soul in sight. That was nice.

During our walk, a lonesome butterfly flew up to Riley and circled around him, then it flew away and came back and rested on the dirt right in front of him. I've heard that spirits manifest themselves in butterfly form. Hmm. It is written that this park does have some interesting background to it, as in Spirits roaming the area. Anything is possible.

This girl had walked past us and I noticed that Riley was staring at the dog and as she kept walking and we walked a bit behind them Riley kept saying, "hi doggy, hi doggy" and that's when she stopped and let Riley pet him. I guess she figured that Riley wouldn't shut up unless she gave Riley the satisfaction of petting her dog. Lol.

We had been walking for a while and I noticed his cheeks getting red so I handed him his water. He liked walking along the small dirt path on the side.

Then, all of a sudden, the canopy of trees parted. A big chunk of Lake Washington was exposed. Gorgeous!

We saw several speeding boats, jet skies, canoes and kayaks!

But he was mostly interested in playing with rocks and getting his hands dirty.

So glad I remembered to put on sunblock on the both of us. The sun was out in full force.

As soon as I spotted a bench under a shady tree I sprinted towards it. By this point we had been walking for about an hour so I decided we would stop for a bit at mile post 1.5. I needed to rest and to refuel. We brought a light lunch and ate while we took in the scenery.

Sydna and Nathan came back and found us. After we were done eating we continued on our walk. As we were looking at boats I saw that Riley had stopped walking and sat down on the ground. His little legs were tired, poor thing. He was breathing heavy and so I asked Jacob if he could carry him. He didn't whine, I could just tell that he was exhausted and that made me feel bad. He was more than happy to be able to hitch a ride on daddy's shoulders.

We came across a dock. We saw ducks and geese resting on it then we glanced over at the lily pads and spotted ducklings and turtles. It was pretty neat to see.

The playground is near the parks entrance. Riley saw it as we drove past it to the parking lot and he asked to play ... we promised him that he would after our walk. So as soon as we came upon it and he saw it he made a run for it. I guess by this point he had regained his energy, lol.

I really liked this trail. No hills, it was paved, lots of shade, super nice scenery and I loved that it looped. Pretty cool that there were several restrooms along the way. Not for my sake ... it seems like the men in my life seem to always get the urge to pee when we're out.

This is another area around Lake Washington where there's a trail but less crowded. Looks very relaxing to me. I even told Jacob that we should come back and walk on this trail just the two of us next time we visit. Doesn't it look nice?

Leaving the Bellevue way. We love to drive on the floating bridge ... just not during high winds though.

This little guy was spent. He fell asleep fast once we got in the car. Nathan did too. We had to wake him up once we got home.

Surprisingly I didn't get a headache but my feet were killing me. By nighttime they were super achy. They still hurt a little the following day. That's lame right? Seriously need to go on walks a lot more.