We went on our first letterboxing adventure today. The tree of life it was called. It was awesome. It is a perfect hobby for one with little kids. It combines the outdoors with learning and clues, and then the reward of finding your treasure.
The hike started out tenuous as everything seems to for Aiden. After we entered the "forest" he became apprehensive and worried. He held my hand almost the entire way. I made the mistake of mentioning to watch out for poison oak -not that I really know what it looks like, and I will be researching it so I can give him accurate information. But then he didn't want to get poison oak, and he was afraid of being left and getting lost.
As you can imagine Nolen was the exact opposite. Running off at first chance, which happened to be the parking lot. Not cool. He is so difficult to hang onto. His feet seem to be controlled by a force outside of his body. They just keep going even when he falls, and rolls down a hill, they seem to supernaturally pull him up and force him onward. Through the bushes, the stickers, the mud, tripping and falling and rolling along. Nolen could care less to have us in sight. He ventures on recklessly without a worry in his little blonde head.
And of course any hike with Steve turns into an unplanned adventure with some sort of obstacle to overcome. After we succeeded in finding our letterbox we planned to take Ellie to the off-leash dog park nearby. Steve likes to rely on his "spidey senses" so instead of going back the way we came and going to the dog park by way of a known path, we followed our leader deeper into the woods. We did find the dog park, but it lay beyond to fences. I am proud to say I can climb fences with the baby in the front pack. Steve tossed the other two and the dog over and we eventually made it, much to Ellie's delight.
So, it was a PERFECT way to spend a gorgeous blue sky, sunny, fall day with the family.
No comments:
Post a Comment