Great Falls, Great Escape

We headed southwest about 30 minutes to the National Park, Great Falls. We entered on the Virginia side and spent the afternoon hiking around their nicely groomed paths and seeing the vistas of the Great Falls. We ate a delicious picnic lunch, and headed back to the District. Juliet rode in her car seat facing forward for the first time - what a big girl.

Rose Park

It was the perfect fall day for a trip to Rose Park in Georgetown. We'd only heard about it, and were pleasantly surprised by the toddler area. Plenty of space to climb, a "firetruck" and a sand yard. We played on the swings and took turns with an 18-month-old little girl on the slide. It's only a short drive, so we'll definitely go there again!

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First Steps

Juliet's been taking little steps for a couple of weeks, but we caught her first long walk on video. She takes a bit of encouragement to get going, but soon she's strolling along. It won't be long before she's running around the house (with me chasing her). The first video has kind of a long intro, but if you're patient you'll see the good stuff in a minute.

Back to Brookside Gardens..

So with Karen back, the three of us took a trip back to Brookside Gardens! But first we stopped for breakfast at the ol' Tastee Diner and I finally got some video of her staring at the waiter, and other patrons, and oh, occasionally eating a little food.





And the gardens were, as usual, exceptional. We explored them quite a bit and found the conservatory! It's a truly extraordinary spot. Unfortunately Juliet was still asleep by the time we got to the Children's Garden.








The complete set of photos can be found here.

Trip to the Zoo!

So J and I took a quick spin through the zoo this cool, crisp early-October afternoon and had a lot of fun!

First, she got to see some Antelope (Ibixes, actually):



And then the Panda was out and _really_ close to the fence!



Then we stopped for a snack:



Before saying hello to the Pig on the way out:

Yesterday's adventures..

So yesterday the J-monster and I took a trip up to Wheaton Regional Park, about 30 minutes away up Georgia Avenue in Maryland.

It's a really big park - with a nice (gravel) trail that leads back to a little lake (Pine Lake) and then up a hill to Brookside Gardens - a separate, beautiful, set of gardens with a nice, paved, loop trail.

Here's a video of her in the grass under one of the pines by the lake:



After all of that walking we went to the playground area and she had a lot of fun watching the other kids!



Then back home, to play some more with the Puma, and my guitar:

Back Porchin'

After yesterday's tropical rains, Juliet and I decided to head out to the back porch this afternoon to enjoy the sun and the soft breeze! Now that all of the boxes have finally disappeared - we've got some room to move around out there.

Juliet is standing and crawling and even trying out a few tentative first steps...

Here are a few fun videos!

Standing and Skimming:



A short standing video (holding a bubble-blowing whistle version of Thomas the Train):



Fun with the basketball:



And fun with a box of paper:



And finally, helping Dad with dinner: