The hills are alive!

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures, but this was a gorgeous place to be! Totally reminded me of "The Sound of Music". Technically, this was Windy Hill Open Space Preserve right next to Portola Valley, CA. Again, a gorgeous spring day and although I'm not sure we entered at the main entrance, we got some great views from where we did enter. It was interesting as we started at the top of the hill and went down and it was STEEP! Due to that, we didn't make it too far down the hill because I was scared about going back UP with Cora on my back. So before heading off, we had a small picnic lunch oh and did I mention too that Nyah was potty training at this point with nary a potty in sight? Well, she was so I think it took us longer to get going than it actually took to "hike" but again, thats not the point....the point is to get the kids out and moving and they don't care that we only hike 2 blocks. If it takes forever it might as well be 2 miles.
ok, so we finally get going and the farther down we go, the more nervous I'm getting about making it back to the car. Thankfully, my sister in law was with us (props to her for most of these pictures!) so we saw kind of a plateaued grassy field below us a ways and decided to get down there to let the kids run around. It looked flat and inviting, so off we went. Unfortunately, it wasn't all that flat and poor Cora who wasn't walking at this point had a tough time crawling through the grass as it was taller than her, but we got some great shots of the kids playing, so I think it was ok.
The highlight of the "hike" was seeing a rider on horseback! The rider was so kind as to let the kids and I pet the horse which the kids really enjoyed. The horse must of had the same thoughts I did about getting back up the hill as the rider had a hard time getting the horse to continue to the top!
After some frolicking and playing, we decided to head back to the top as well. Not quite sure how we made it, but we did! Driving down the mountain back to the freeway was a bit freaky as we were following some bicyclists.....still don't quite understand the death wish these people have on mountain roads, but we all made it down safely and I was thankful for that.
Thanks for the fun day Tia Ellen! We had a great time!