Up The Iron Mountain

Mr. Curry and I were each not quite right Sunday. Vague and nameless unease brought about by workplace problems, money stress, last minute changes to things out of our control, worries about family members... the overcast sky sat glumly above our house. We were supposed to take the kids to the train, but the train didn't run at last minute. Mr. Curry didn't want to do what I wanted to do, although he was quite polite about it, I almost fell into a sulk. Pulling myself together, I decided to do the thing that sounded not misery making to him, and take us all on our traditional mud-hike, where we go hiking either in the rain or directly after a good one. And it had rained, hard, all weekend. So we went, and in the end, I was glad to be wrong. It was the best thing we could have done.

Look how tall our Ian is now. He drove the truck to the mountain.

Lola brought Abby, her oldest and dearest dolly, which Ever has, of course, chosen to be HER most dear dolly. Years ago we used to refer to this doll as 'homeless doll' and by the small glimpse of her head in this image, you can get some idea why.

I love this photo. Kinny looks like a perfect fat baby Buddha, all wise and at peace.

And this will remain a beloved photo because it captures a very Ever-smile- joyful and enormously smug and toying, all at once. You can see the beginning of it forming at the corner of her mouth. 

Ian is a regular hiker and runner. He chugged uphill with Everkins just fine.

When we got to the very, very steep and very, very high part, Ever looked over and down and decided, quite sensibly, to be afraid. She reached for me and I reached back. Snap.

Lola found fairy land and fairy mushrooms and was enchanted.

Ever is in heaven, her natural element. She spent this entire resting time hiding in bushes- like really scraggly, hard to get into bushes- and saying ' don't worry, i be riiiight back, just a minute! '

Here I am looking deservedly puffy faced and holding Abby. I've been on a sugar binge this weekend and it needs. to. stop. It makes me sick, it's bad for me, it makes me gain weight, it puts my future health at risk, it's a bad example for the kids, drains my energy... ugh.

We let Everkins romp in the rainpuddle and she stepped out and her shoe decided not to come with her. Somehow I missed that shot of the poor ole boot in the water, and got this one instead of Daddy fixing it. Ever said ' Ewww poopy on me. GROSS. ' and we laughed and explained no, it's mud, silly.

Somehow when I downloaded, the pictures at the end got out of order. This one of Ever falling in the mud was supposed to be before the one of her shoe, and the below of her asleep in the car was supposed to be the last image.

But instead, I leave you with this, maybe more fitting. A little girl, a much beloved and beaten up dolly, rainboots and a mudpuddle. What could be better than that?