Sue, Beau, and I picked up Mia for an overnight visit Saturday morning 04/17/21.

We had told Marissa to get Mia bundled up for a walk in the snow and cold, but once we got down to the bottom of our little mountain the ground was bare of snow, and just soaked from a cold rain. But Mia would need that gear for the walk out to the waterfall on the rail trail we had told her we'd go on before heading for home.

We stopped off at one of the gates in Farmington, unloaded Beau from the car, and headed down the soggy gravel trail. About a half mile, we went off through the woods to a waterfall. We kept asking Mia if she remembered where the path off the rail trail to the waterfall was, but she didn't until she heard the water cascading over the rocks.

It's such a pretty area, and it was great to see so much water churning over the cliff, and down into the basin. Mia was all over the place, and we had to keep both her and Beau under control on the slippery rocks and leaves. Coming down one steep hill, Beau had sat down on the wet leaves, and just slid on his butt for about 8 feet; quite a surprise to him, that's for sure!

But it was really cold, and the hiking around in the slippery wet leaf covered ground had just about worn me out, so we headed back onto the trail.

When we got home, Mia stowed her travel bag and stuffed "Lob-stah" up in the front bedroom. We wanted to have an early lunch as dinner would be early as well. While Mia and Sue occupied themselves doing something, I heated up some soup to go with the grilled cheese sandwiches Mia requested.

Sue getting Mia into her warm hiking gear.

Heading out on the Rail Trail

Sue is always finding interesting things for Mia to investigate.

Water is still flowing strong enough to pour over the falls.

Mia walking Beau back to the car.

Hope the daffodils will recover from the wet, heavy snow that had fallen yesterday.

The yard still 3 inches deep in heavy, wet snow from yesterday.

Learning about otters. During lunch, Sue had mentioned that sometimes Beau looked like an otter the way he would wiggle across the grass. When Mia said she didn't know what an otter was, I pulled up a video of them on my phone for her to see.

And that discussion prompted Sue to ask Mia if she'd like to see if they could still sled down the hill in the backyard even though the snow was melting fast. And so, off they went — the two wild ones, and The Beau Dog to do just that!

After helping Sue with making cookies (you can see a pan of them on the top of the stove), Mia climbed up on the stool to work with me.

Sue gave the job of getting her meat loaf recipe prep work done early so that we could all watch the really cute kids tv series, Dino Dana. Mia got her hands right into it, and loved it, particularly because it was 'Gramma Sue's recipe!

Yeah, she really was into mushing all the ingredients up!

And then putting the mix into the baking dish.

While I looked for the series to get that going, Sue and Mia patiently messed around with some of the backgammon checkers.

Mia on a walk along the Mad River with Sue Sunday morning after breakfast.

When they got back to the house, Sue asked Mia if she'd like to help start training Beau to walk around the cones.

And if that wasn't enough, Mia wanted to help Sue plant some seeds into pots out on the screen porch before having lunch.

Sue and Beau helping Mia load her gear into the car so I could drive her back home. It was a great visit, and we're soooo looking forward to many more!