A near perfect day.

Yesterday was a great day.  Chris had the day off, which doesn't happen too often these days, between all the training and overtime lately.  We started the morning off with both Chris and I being able to get in a good run, and since the sun was finally shining, it felt especially good.  Then, after I got back from grocery shopping (without the kids), we packed up a few things for a picnic dinner up in the mountains.  We drove just 12 miles from our house to a campground with a free day use area that has a big sandbox, horseshoes and a creek for the kids to play in, and  a trail head that takes a path that goes up high in the mountains.  We set up "camp", the portable grill to do some hamburgers for dinner, then started out as a family up the trail that goes a couple of miles uphill.  The kids did pretty well, only minimal complaining about the hike.  They really would have preferred to just play in the sand and creek the whole time, which is what they did after we returned from our hike.  Then we had a campfire, and the plan was to make s'mores, but somehow I inadvertently forgot to bring the graham crackers, so we just roasted some marshmallows.   After the kids got in some good play time, we packed up and headed back home, where the kids all had showers, then we had root beer floats while we watched "Rigoletto" as a family.  After the kids went to bed, Chris and I spent some alone time, watching "Evita".  The only bad part of the entire day was when I was gone at the grocery store and Nicolas fell down the stairs and hit his mouth, cutting his lip, tongue and knocking a tooth loose.  Chris said it took him a while to get the bleeding to stop.  The rest of the day his diet consisted of yogurt, pudding and ice cream, since he said it hurt too much to chew.