Pajama Hike

Kids up just after 6 AM (not unusual these days), shoes and coats on over pajamas (I was already dressed from the gym), into the car, a coffee for me and plain bagel with cream cheese for them (Satellite Coffee drive-thru), cool walk as the sun was coming up over the mountains, a couple bridges (which the twins insist have trolls under them...I named the trolls Alfonzo and Raphel), exclamations over (the many) cacti ("A cactus! Don't touch...it will hurt me!"), a duck pond with no ducks (but some frenzied hummingbirds and a very relaxed bunny), playing in the rocks, kids didn't want to go back to the car so some cajoling and bribery at the end, smelling of rain from the night before, the slapping of their feet on the pavement as they ran to catch up with me...