A Nice Sunday Stroll

Sara and I took Olivia to The Kellogg Forest for a nice stroll today. The weather was perfect, Low 80's sunny, slight breeze. We haven't taken Olivia many places just due to her condition, but mainly the fact that she has yet to have a full course of vaccines has made us reluctant to expose her to many things.

We've had a really good couple of weeks since our last Doctor's visit. Olivia has been eating well, feeling well, happy, smiling, only throwing a wobbly (tantrum) every once in a while :). She's had a couple of blood tests over the last 2 weeks, checking various kidney values. Overall the Kidney team is happy with her bloodwork, but would prefer to see her blood slightly less acidic. They have increased her Sodium Bicarbonate (again) to help fight this acidosis and to help keep her Potassium from creeping up too high, which is still sitting slightly higher than 'normal.'

Our walk was around the main loop, which is about 2.5mi lasted about 1 hour. Kellogg Forest is a Michigan State University Forestry Research facility which has many hiking/biking/walking trails. The gravel track is well traveled and goes through a number of different wooded sections, all with signs explaing their purpose. It is a very relaxing atmosphere, which quickly put little O to sleep. She didn't sleep the whole way, but was quite attentive to her surroundings most of the time.

We did run across a couple fun pieces of wildlife while out and about. Sara noticed a Box Turtle snacking on some grass and had of course had to stop for a quick Photo. The turtle became a little camera shy and quickly withdrew into its shell. While moving the turtle off the main path, a beautiful Indigo Bunting landed in a tree right above us. It didn't want to hang out with us and

flew off before we could snap a picture of it. For those that haven't been lucky enough to see one of these birds, they are spectacular.

Their feathers have and irridescent indigo sheen, that glimmers in the sun. Very unforgettable. Here's a picture I pulled off the internet showing the wonderful plumage of this bird.

A very nice Sunday with the family!