Welcome, Spring

Words can't convey what a gorgeous weekend we had here. Well, they COULD, but I'm way too lazy to think of all those words.

We started Saturday off by visiting Our Local Statue, also known as Vulcan. This is his hiney. I took a picture of him from the front, but I guess I deleted that one by accident, because it's not here anymore.

This is the view from the bottom of Vulcan, which is still a good ways above Birmingham. I work in one of those buildings down there, but I can't tell you which one because it would be a violation of our company policy to mention it on my "Web log."

Jake's still at that age where he has to go everywhere in the stroller, and he can't really participate in much that goes on outside of the stroller in an environment like this, where there are lots of people and concrete. Luckily, he's a pretty easy-going little guy. Exhibit A:

And Exhibit B:

And Exhibit C:

Nathaniel and Nick had only had their faces painted once before, so they were really excited when they saw a face painter there. They stayed excited until they started putting in requests and kept getting denied.

He: "Can you do Batman?"

She: "No, sorry."

He: "Can you do SpongeBob?"

She: "No."

He: "How about ... Darth Vader?"

She: "No, I can't do that. Sorry. I'm not good at that many things. What are your initials? I can do that."

He: [blink, blink]

THAT'S A SMIRK IF I'VE EVER SEEN ONE. He's like, "Seriously? MY INITIALS?"

Luckily, things started looking up, because WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN A HUGE HILL? Nothing, that's what. They spent the next half hour running up and down and rolling up and down the hill. Here, you will clearly see that although they'd agreed to run down together, Nathaniel "cheated" and took off first.

That, of course, caused Nick to walk sullenly down the hill, whining "HE CHEATED" all the way down. Hands in pockets, face all scrunched up, it was quite a performance.

The next run went more smoothly, and everyone finished happy.

After one more run, it was time to head off to our next Beautiful Day Adventure Location.

Next, we hit the walking/biking trail that runs along one of the main suburban thoroughfares in Birmingham. Several miles long, partially shaded, running right beside a creek, it's a GREAT place to ride, run and walk.

Nathaniel took off on the bike with training wheels, because Nick wanted to attempt riding without them. Here's Nathaniel speeding off on Nick's bike:

We stayed behind with Nick while he tried his best on the big-boy bike. He actually did pretty well, but I think it might be a while before he masters it. He just can't balance his weight well enough, and it's a BACK-BREAKER to hold him up while he rides. Grayson and I took turns doing it, and it was not my favorite part of the day.

You can't tell it from these pictures, but the air was almost YELLOW. All of these trees are getting ready to bloom, and my friends who have pollen allergies are MISERABLE right now. The boys' helmets were covered in pollen after our ride.

It really was such a beautiful weekend, and I hope we have a few more like that before summer-like temps set in. Here's to many more afternoons on the trail!