#36 Pemi climbs box hill

We've been on many weekend adventures so far, dedicating time to simply be outdoor with Pemi: walking, looking at leaves, eating a picnic, playing in the dirt. Over time the adventures have developed: from Pemi mostly sleeping through them, to him pointing at and commenting ("bah!") on everything he saw.

Yet this one was the beginning of a new type of adventure. This was Pemi's adventure.

Today we went to box hill, the ultimate destination for London trail runners trying to practice running uphill (or downhill). We came here last year for the first Weekend Adventure with Pemi (he was 6 weeks old), when Andrew was training for his race in Nice. This time we did another asynchronous adventure (see WAP #34). First Jasmine ran up and down boxhill while Andrew walked with Pemi, then we switched, and after Andrew's run we had a picnic and a walk together in the woods.

So far, nothing extraordinary, a simple plan. It was when Andrew and Pemi arrived at the bottom of box hill, that things started to change. Pemi (!!) started walking the path up, unphased by the steepness of the ascent or the steps so high they got to his waist.

Andrew thought he'd maybe walk a few steps then stop to play in the dirt, but unrelenting, step by step he kept pushing up. Jasmine met them almost a third of the way up as she was coming down. Meeting on the trail was so fun! Smiles and hugs and babbles were exchanged.

Seeing Jasmine run past and down, Pemi took one look at the trail... and started going down after her.

Once Andrew was running, Jasmine and Pemi were still on the same trail, and Pemi was enthusiastically going up and down the steps until he found the large trunk of a cut tree in the middle of the trail and adopted it as his drums and also his throne from which to greet hikers as they went by.

It was an amazing experience to let Pemi take charge of his hike and his adventure: the beginning of a new phase!

And yes, he was very very tired in the evening :)