Labor(ing) Day

My husband's parents came up this weekend after a short daliance with Ernesto. Miranda has been obsessed with going fossil-hunting, and I'd managed to push her off until this visit (mostly because I have no idea where -- in this area -- is a good place to find fossils), so it was time to pay the piper.

As it turns out, despite hours of research, I still have no idea where one might go in this area to look for fossils, but I don't want to do anything to discourage her love of science. Out of desperation, I suggested hiking to a local waterfall to look for fossils (there are PLENTY of rocks there, although I have to admit I have never actually seen a fossil there.) I had not been to this waterfall since before Miranda was born, but I remembered that there was an easy and a hard way to the falls, either way about two miles hike.

Miranda was completely psyched about this trip. When she got up in the morning, she decided to forgo on her usual stylish fare and put on her "scientist clothes": a long-sleeved pink and black striped shirt with a pair of bright red sweatpants; evidently she feels that "scientist" is synonymous with "no fashion sense." I would have found this outfit acceptable except that it was well over 80 degrees and I did not want her to die. So I tried to steer her toward a short-sleeved shirt at least, and the conversation went something like this:

Me: "How about this shirt?" (Referring to a striped t-shirt that looks lovely on her.)

Miranda: "But it isn't a science shirt!"

Me: "Of course, it is -- it can easily be clean, and it's comfortable."

Miranda: "Well ... well ... what about this shirt?" (referring to a nice green shirt.)

Me: "Yes, that one is fine, too."

Miranda: "And these shorts look so nice with it ..."

Now that everything was back in alignment in the universe, we set off. We immediately got sidetracked by the directional signs onto the hard trail (not what we'd intended), and Xavier immediately decided that he was not up to making the trip, so he ended up riding on either my shoulders (most of the time) or Adam's. But Miranda immediately took the role of trail blazer and kept us on a pretty fast pace (we had to keep reminding her that we needed to slow down for Nana and Papoo.) She let nothing daunt her or slow her down, not even the occasional stumble and fall. All in all, we were totally impressed by her. We didn't find any fossils, but she took that in stride as well.

And Xavier? He did a great job playing the role of shoulder-candy.