August 19th

Today was a work day.  It was also a watch Gideon day.  We went for a short hike, 2 miles.  Gideon wasn't on his best behavior after the first few minutes.  The hill we had to go up set him to whining.  When we actually got to a place where there were yellow blazes to follow along a trail instead of a gravel road he started to improve.  By the time we got to the top and he saw some dogs he was happy and full of energy.

When we started he was talking about how we would hike the AT together.  When we finished he was feeling like he could do anything. It was just that middle part that he got a bit cranky.  I like to wing it... just go in any direction and see where it takes me.  My thought is that Gideon needs to know where we are going a bit more firmly than I do.  I knew where we were and could easily find my way around that hill, but he couldn't.  I have been wanting to teach him map skills for some time now.  Since I can't find a book about it like I am fairly certain I had with my kids, I will have to remember it and recreate it somehow for Gideon.  Tomorrow maybe he and I will draw a map of his bedroom.

Up the hill we go.

 Are we there yet?

 Being Awesome.

Mushroom

A Map!  :)

Views! 

You coming? 

There are supposed to be wheels somewhere that were used to tow people up to ski down.

In the trees!

Now which way do we go?

Today's happy is Gideon talking about hiking the AT with me.  He talked about how we were doing good training for it today.  And that maybe we would see animals along the AT and they would have tags and we could return them to their owner.  I told him we might see more of the wild variety rather than pets.  We also talked about the difference between evergreen and deciduous trees.  

And later on the sun sets over a parking lot.