Chasing geese and hiking Maxwell Mays

On Friday, Madeline snuggled up in our guest bed.

Yesterday, Madeline enjoyed a juice box.

She also enjoyed chasing after geese in the park near our house.

But she was sad when they flew away honking.  So we went home and Madeline helped me fire up the grill for dinner.

Today, we went out to the Maxwell Mays Wildlife Refuge.  We went there almost exactly a year ago too. This year was apparently a little colder.  But Madeline again found and held onto an acorn.

And we again went to Carr's pond.  Madeline wanted to find frogs and turtles, so we went to the edge of the pond to look.

There were no frogs or turtles to be seen.  Madeline hypothesized: "Frogs and turtles sleeping.  Or hiding in the trees."  And she was happy despite the absence of any signs of aquatic life.

She sat on a rock with Summer and admired the half-frozen pond dusted with snow and framed by evergreens.

Madeline's a much more independent walker than she was last year.  She probably managed about half the hike on her own two feet.

But she wasn't above occasionally hitching a ride.

After all that activity, Madeline took an epic, almost three hour long nap.  By the time she woke up, Kristin was here to babysit for the evening.  While they played, Summer and I enjoyed a belated birthday dinner for me at Matunuck Oyster Bar -- mmm.