A good weekend

Nothing very spectacular or terribly unusual this weekend, but it was still a good weekend.  Katie was so tired of the snow, that we made sure to get out with the improved weather.

Snow most of the week (this picture is from Wednesday):

But Thursday it cleared up and started melting:

Now the snow is almost gone.  It almost hit 70 today, and it is actually raining right now.  It is supposed to be around 60 all week.

Katie took the kids to a city park Friday to enjoy the warmer weather, and Saturday we went to East Gallatin Rec Area to hike around the trails.  We didn't see much, and the many trees and bushes are just barely starting to leaf out.  The highlights for Reder were certainly the bridges, of which there were many:

Today we went to the Sourdough nature trail, which is just a few miles from our house.  This is a great area with great trails, but again it was kind of early, with nothing very green, as you can see in the pictures below.  We did see quite a few birds, including the happiest goldfinch we have ever seen.  He was non-stop chirping and singing as we went by, and still in the same spot, just as noisy when we were coming back.   We also saw lots of woodpeckers - Flickers, downy, and one that I am going to have to look at the bird book for.  

Reder picked up a stick to use as a walking stick along the way.  We were just discussing where he got that idea - we never use waling sticks.  He must have seen someone else using one.  However most people probably don't pee on their walking sticks when they make a pit stop.
There were a couple of bridges too.  Reder would get very excited to announce that we found a bridge!
Reder has been a great hiker, keeping up and covering decent distances for a three-year-old.  I'm not sure how far we went today, but I would estimate 1.5-2 miles, and the same yesterday.  And he loves it.  Today Katie and I just had to laugh when following him.  He marches along swinging his arms and looking around at everything - having such a great time - it is just funny to watch.  
Ruby isn't in these pictures, as she was just riding in the back pack.  She is mostly happy riding along, but occasionally she gets restless, especially when we are trying to force her to wear a had to block the sun from her head.  So here is a picture of her - she seems to prefer standing now, and this is a picture of her digging toys out of the entertainment center: