It’s always a little awkward to return to blogging after an unintentional hiatus. Instead of apologizing or listing a bunch of feeble excuses, I’ll just jump right back in. Since last we spoke:

We finally bought a new car, another Subaru Forester to replace our beloved Forester Gump. Our new adventure mobile is named Subie Sue (you know, like Zou Bisou Bisou) and allows us to venture beyond the Issaquah Alps again.

We’ve pretty much stayed in the Issaquah Alps anyway. I’m over snow. Bring on dry tails, wildflowers, and marmots.

I caught a cold, which normally wouldn’t be interesting in any way, except for the fact that this was my first time being sick since Christmas 2011. That’s huge for someone who used to pick up every single bug that went around. Alas, even my newfound iron immune system was defenseless when sitting directly in the line of fire of a coughing toddler for three hours in a car.

Oh well, it was worth it for a hike in the sunshine with my favorite little man.

JK started instructing for the Washington Alpine Club’s climbing class again, and I joined them on their first outing, Mount Si. I brought my Kindle and a sleeping pad and spent hours reading in the sunshine. Strangely, I was not the only person to do this, I saw a man spread out on a huge blanket, reading a newspaper. Now that would be a wonderful weekend tradition.

Si being Si – crowded – I got to chat with lots of excited hiking neophytes who were amazed by “the pristine views” (of I90 and North Bend). It made me realize just how lucky (and spoiled) I am when it comes to wilderness adventures.

A gentleman named Mike insisted on taking my photo in the rocks below the Haystack, giving me an excellent portrait of myself gazing dreamily towards the mountains (as I am wont to do).

I joined my very first trail work party with the Washington Trails Association! We started building a brand new connector trail on Cougar Mountain, which involved wrestling with giant ferns, digging lots of dirt, and clearing a walkable tread through a maddening system of rocks and roots.

I was surprised by how many people showed up (on a Tuesday), and inspired by the tight-knit but very welcoming community of retirees who are both in better shape and more adventurous than I am.

We made an impressive amount of progress on the new trail, and I immediately signed up for three more work parties. I’ll definitely have to come back enough times to earn my personalized hard hat…and to work on more little sections of trail that I will forever think of as my own. Oh, and to take part in nature’s CrossFit – if I hadn’t gone for a hike to loosen up my muscles after the work party, I doubt I would be able to move at all today. All that shoveling and fern-wrestling works your core muscles like the dickens!

Is there anything better than meeting someone, hitting it off right away, and just knowing that you’ll be good friends? Why yes, yes there is – when you learn that those new friends have a family cabin in the mountains!

We would obviously adore these guys even without their excellently situated chalet, but they get bonus points for not only inviting us on our first voyage to Mount Hood, but somehow also scheduling a sunny Saturday in March.

A group of us gathered in the cabin in Government Camp, Oregon, to celebrate Lauren’s birthday, play board games, and eat damn good food (and lots of it).

We also took turns snuggling with the mascot of the trip (sorry, Mukmuk), a four month old little lady who is the easiest baby I have ever met (sorry, Nathan), and who spent the whole weekend probably giving us the wrong impression of what babies are actually like.

She even joined us, nestled in the Ergobaby, on our hike from Timberline Lodge to the top of the Palmer Chairlift, 8,500 feet. She slept the whole way, except when she was taken out of the carrier for a minute to put on her warm polar bear suit to protect against the stiff breeze near the top.

The rest of us had to make do with our much less adorable wind shells. And we had to use our legs, which seems unfair, but was probably a good thing given the feast we proceeded to gorge ourselves on when we returned to the cabin.

It was an excellent weekend indeed, thanks to our fellow cabineers, that gorgeous mountain, the creative cabin cookery, and of course our wonderful hosts.

Last weekend it was time for our annual trip to Noble Knob, this time to share our favorite trail with Carlos, Deborah, and our favorite Small Person, Nathan.

In spite of the “mostly sunny” forecast, we spent the approach walking inside of a cloud. A very, very cold cloud. Luckily the trail had lots of eye candy to offer even though Mount Rainier was hiding – all my favorite wildflowers were on display: western anemone, columbine, paintbrush and the always beautiful tiger lily.

We seemed to be right at the cloud line the whole time, and the sun was this close to breaking through…

…but by the time we made it to camp, we were firmly enshrouded in the fog. It felt more like late September than June, and the nutrias, devoid of fur and fat, spent the evening puppy-piled in JK’s sleeping bag. Brrr. Nathan stayed warm in the tent in his sleeping bag and fancy backpacking suit.

But ahh, Noble Knob came through for us yet again! When we peeked out of the tent in the morning, we were above the sea of clouds, the Alpine Lakes Wilderness peaks rising up as jagged islands in the distance.

Now that the sun was out, it was warm enough for Nathan to come out and play. Happiest baby on the rock!

He also got to take a good look at what will likely be his future playground, Mount Rainier.

Wellie and Basil had to pose for photos…

…and I got to engage in my favorite pastime, al fresco reading.

While I reread Wild and Deborah was on baby duty, the boys (minus Nathan) hiked up the Secondary Knob. I took photos of them and tried to make it seem like a harrowing climb…

…but actually it looked like this:

It might have been an easy ascent, but the mosquitoes were ferocious. By the time they made it back to camp, Basil had been gnawed on by so many bugs that his whole face swelled up. Nathan graciously donated some of his Baby Benadryl, and JK and I packed up as fast as we could.

We left the others on the summit since packing up and hiking out with a baby takes a bit longer and we didn’t want to take any chances with Basil. Surprisingly, he didn’t seem bothered by the situation at all, he was his happy self and in full-on explorer mode.

He got lots of sympathy from the White River 50 Mile runners we met along the way, and by the time we got back to the car, the antihistamines had worked their magic and Basil looked almost back to normal. From now on we’ll always carry nutria-appropriate doses of Benadryl (10mg) with us, and put cedar oil on Basil to keep the bugs away. Poor little guy.

A while ago, I came across a video clip about baby language and immediately forwarded it to Carlos and Deb. The theory is that “across cultures and linguistic groups there are five sounds, each with a meaning, that are used by infants before the language acquisition period.”* As it turns out, Nathan is fluent!

Carlos invited me to join him and the little talker for a hike where I could see (well, hear) it for myself. It really is incredible, hearing that seemingly helpless little human tell us exactly what he needs. “Neh” (feed me) and “eh” (burp me) in particular are unmistakable.

As for the hike, I had never been to Wallace Falls before and I was surprised by how lush and pretty the forest was, but this is one of those hikes I’ll remember for the company and the conversation (including all the nehs and ehs), not for the views. Thanks for a most excellent afternoon, Brazilian menfolk!

*Wikipedia article on Dunstan Baby Language

(Yes, there’s an infant swaddled safely somewhere inside that grey blob.)

Given all the trail miles he had logged in utero, at ten weeks old it was high time Nathan went on his first snowshoe. Until he can walk on his own (and use these amazing Snowpaw Snowshoes), he’ll get free rides with his parents, marsupial-style.

Carlos and Deborah had the perfect destination in mind – the Grand Junction Warming Hut, part of the Snoqualmie Nordic trail system. We hiked from Silver Fir, past Hyak Lake, over the river and through the woods to the hut.

Perfect destination indeed. The hut was heated by a wood-burning stove which allowed Nathan to escape from his snuggly cocoon for all his feeding and changing needs.

This was at the tail end of the Snowpocalypse, but the little nugget slept through the whole trek though the snowstorm. At the hut, he wasn’t fussy at all – but then again he is the most laid-back baby of all time. He just sat there wide-eyed and cooing while JK and I perfected our baby-sniffing technique.

Once Nathan was bundled back up in his adorable snowsuit, we ventured out into the deep powder (I know, deep powder in the Cascades…whaaaa?) and retraced our steps back to the Silver Fir parking lot. An excellent outing for children big and small!