Switching Gears

Switching Gears

 Ooooooh, it was chilly today! I think we hovered around the 30 degree mark at the warmest part of the day. It was cold but not cold enough to stay inside.  After a hearty breakfast I gathered up my happy little mob of hikers and headed over to a local trail at a park close by. We added on a couple of layers, zipped ourselves up and headed in. 

Deer tracks

Brother was our fearless leader today and was careful to point out all the interesting things we should take heed not to miss: an enormous fallen tree, the creek, a pretty bird. He is also developing a good eye to spot animal tracks in muddy spots on the trail. He spotted a bunch of deer tracks in different places and then another track we needed to debate a bit, dog or raccoon? We settled on dog, thank goodness. A raccoon with feet that size would be a reason to high tail it out of there. 

A rock Big Sis found on the
trail. We had to bring it home! 

It was so beautiful out. The air was crisp, it was quiet, pretty, the kiddies were stepping lively so I nestled into the notion that we were really going to bank a good 2 or 3 miles today. Awesome, right? I certainly thought so. But then it happened. Little Sis fussed for a minute. No big deal. Then fussed some more. Ok, start thinking. Is she hungry? Chilly? Let me tuck in that blanket maybe? I fix the blanket, lean in for a kiss or two and that was when I realized there was a game changer in the midst. We were barely a half mile in and I was loving the idea of getting some good distance in... but, stinky baby trumps great hike. I didn't want to admit it but we really had to turn around and head back.  Don't get me wrong, I am not afraid of a mid-hike diaper change, but not in 30-degree weather. No way that little tush was getting frostbite on my watch. So just like that, it was done. We turned around and headed back to the car. 

When we got home I wanted to extend our hiking experience a bit instead of moving on right away.  We talked about everything we saw today, the things Brother pointed out and all the colors that were around us. I got all of those colors out and let the olders recreate their hike today in a painting. 

This is "a HUGE tree in the forest". 

I love how the kiddies spent so much time on this one picture and diligently added all the details they spoke about before beginning this project. We certainly didn't get to log in a whole lot of miles today but it still turned out pretty well! 

Some very happy trees by Brother and a picture of herself on the trail by Big Sis.