One of the enjoyable activities Jag and I have been forced to put on hold through Griff’s infancy and young toddlerhood (hey, get your mind out of the gutter!) is hiking. Griff loved his mei tai carrier until he didn’t (once he started crawling at around 6 months), and by the time it occurred to us to look into a backpack hiking carrier for him, Mister 97th Percentile was already well over the weight limits of the ones we could find. I remember griping about this to my physician at my last physical around a year ago, and she said, “Well, in my experience, things like that really do start getting easier by around the time they’re three.”

Today Griff is 3 years and almost a month, and we managed a 2-mile walk at Eno River State Park without having to carry him (at least until we had to drag him back to the car so we could get some lunch). So I think things are looking up on the hiking front. 🙂

We’ve been itching to get out to the Eno ever since the weather turned warm, and today we decided to head out to the Fews Ford entrance to check out the suspension bridge and get some exercise. It was lovely.

The riverbanks were covered in bluets and violets.

There was a big bridge and a little bridge.

There were trees and rocks to play on and around.

And the river was framed with newly leafed trees. All in all, a perfect spring hike, if a little shorter and slower than they used to be. 🙂