Day 18

I'm grateful for Riley Trails which was one of our favorite things to do as a family this fall!  

And cue post that I wrote earlier in the fall and then forgot to post....... :)

Chris and I are always brainstorming activities that we can do with the boys that will get us out of the house, burn off some of their energy, support their learning and yet not cost too much money. It's not always easy to think of activities which meet those criteria!

We decided that the boys are probably old enough for hiking so we gave it a try a few weekends back.

We went to a beautiful cluster of nature trails near our home, that weave through the woods and where lots of people walk, run, bike and cross country ski in the winter. 

The boys were SO excited. Especially since we go on nature walks around our yard all the time. This was going to be even more BIG TIME than that.

We ended up walking almost a mile and most of the boys were able to walk the whole way.

The boys loved pointing out the trail markers, "reading" the maps and picking up acorns, sticks and pine cones to look at. 

Sadly, Finn got stung by a bee about half way through our walk. I turned and he was grabbing his ear crying, "Biting me! Biting me!" When we peeled his hand away, there was a bee IN his ear stinging him. Poor Finn!

His ear swelled up pretty bad and I ended up carrying him the rest of the way. Anytime I'd try and put him down he'd cry, "Mommy hold you!" (meaning of course, "hold me")

We felt so sad for poor Finny!!

Thankfully Finn still somehow had an overall positive experience and was excited to go back again. We've returned many times this fall and have worked up to walking two miles with the boys!

Colin and Finn spot a tree just their size on our last walk.

It was cold, but Owen was ready!

As we walked through the woods on that very first hiking endeavour, I thought back to when Chris and I hiked in New Zealand, back when our boys were still just a dream in our heads. On those hikes, Chris and I would talk about returning to the states (after spending a year in the Philippines) and how we hoped to start a family. We both said how amazing it'd be to bring our future children back to New Zealand to hike. Of course we had no idea that we'd end up with five children! With what the price of airline tickets to New Zealand are, that dream may be a long shot!!! Who knows though, maybe we'll hit the lottery :)

For now though, our local trails are perfect!