Outside

One of Annaliese's favorite things to do is to go "Outside." Whenever I or anyone else says the word "Outside," she taps her head to see if she is wearing her hat or not. Frequently she already is. If not, she begins looking for where it might be. With a little help situating her hat, she marches to the front door and whines for me while signing "Please." She craves going outdoors. Daily. Rather, multiple times per day. Even when it is raining. Rainy days can be long for both of us sometimes.

If we've already been to the park that day, we usually go just beyond of our front yard to a little dead end part of the road by the rail road tracks (fancy and super-kid friendly, I know) and wander around, picking up pebbles, kicking bottle caps, and pulling grass.

If you can ignore the orange striped road block, and imagine that those mountains are not only toward the east as shown in this picture, but stretch both north and south in our view on this particular day, then you'll know that this is one of those cherished but all too few days in the Central Valley of seeing the awe-inspiring views of the Sierra Nevada that we will miss when we move to... somewhere else.

For now, we'll just enjoy going "Outside!" and then love the new "Outside" where ever that is, when we get there!