Sunday was such a fun day! It has been too hot lately to spend a ton of time outdoors, so when it was finally a tiny bit cooler and less humid on Sunday (relatively, anyway), Matt and I knew we had to take advantage. Hiking it was!
We picked up this women’s fit hiking backpack with baby carrier at a yard sale recently (score! it’s Kelty brand but no idea what model since it’s old) and I’ve been really excited to try it out. (We have a bigger men’s fit one for Matt as well that was a hand me down from a friend, so next time he’ll give that one a shot!)
We decided to hit the trails in Bull Run Regional Park near Clifton, VA.
It was so nice to be out in nature! Riese really enjoyed it, too – and as I mentioned on Instagram, she also enjoyed being in the perfect position to pull my hair… please tell me the hair pulling phase doesn’t last long? 🙂
Hair pulling aside, we had a lot of fun out there. We probably hiked about 1.5 hours and by the end my shoulders were starting to hurt and Riese was getting a little fussy, but overall it was great fun! And a great workout – hiking uphill with a baby strapped to you is no joke!
Also, for my hiker/trail runner readers, I wanted to mention that I am loving the Brooks Cascadia trail shoes! Brooks offered me my choice of shoe to review this month (as part of my ongoing Run Happy Ambassadorship with the brand) and I decided it would be fun to mix it up with some trail shoes vs. running shoes. I love their other trail shoes (especially the PureGrit!), but had never tried the Cascadia before. I loved them – really comfortable with great grip, and they felt very sturdy but not heavy. You will be seeing a lot of these in the future anytime we are out hiking! Thank you Brooks!
After our hike, we decided to head into the tiny, adorable town of Clifton for lunch. I love Clifton – it’s basically two blocks and so cute. We had lunch at a little coffee shop + creperie called Clifton Cafe, and both started with side salads (loved the lemony vinaigrette, and the addition of chopped dates) and whole milk iced lattes.
The main event was, of course, crepes! We both went savory – Matt had a chorizo and hash crepe and I went for their crepe stuffed with chicken, goat cheese, artichoke hearts, spinach, and lemon aoili. It was super savory, rich, and sooooo good. I crushed it.
Here’s a funny behind the scenes/real life shot – Riese is in a very grabby phase right now and eating out with her is a bit chaotic! At least she was going for Matt’s sunglasses vs. a knife/fork (those had already been moved away from her multiple times, ha). 😉 We took turns baby holding and eating because Riese was not down to hang out in her stroller while we ate – whatever works!
After we finished, we put Riese in the stroller and as soon as it started moving she conked out. We decided to walk around and explore for a bit to let her sleep, and then ended up at the cute ice cream shop in town just for fun. We shared a huge mint chocolate chip cone that hit the spot!
We were all exhausted by the time we got home but it was worth it – such a fun family adventure. 🙂 We can’t wait for a lot more hiking adventures this fall!
Have a great day guys, and I’ll see you back here on Thursday with a grill-friendly salad recipe you won’t want to miss!
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