hiking

we're really into hiking these days, though we were all pretty traumatized by gabriel on this last attempt. it started off well enough--he was walking along, saying hi to dogs, trying to feed tiny rocks to them. he was advised by one dog owner (nicely) that the dog didn't actually want to eat any rocks, which prompted tears and wailing. it was downhill from there. he refused to walk, refused to be carried by poppa, refused to be carried by momma, and thrashed so much that he kicked off one shoe. we couldn't figure out what he wanted to do until 40 looooong minutes later, when we finally realized that he just wanted to sit and pry rocks from the soil and lick them when no one was looking. we considered leaving him for the hawks, but amelia wouldn't let us.

amelia was having a delightful time, even with gaby's antics/hysterics. here she is, by a hillside of california poppies.