This, That and The Other: Nature Walk

The last couple weeks we've worked into a new little routine. My husband rides the trails, we play at the park. I really like it. When he's finally home for the weekend I am not always thrilled to have him leave for a few hours to go ride. I enjoy going with him, it feels more like a family outing.

This week we went back to the same park as last time, but I pointed out to Beemer that there were nature trails. I thought he'd be bored with it, but he loved it! I kept asking if he wanted to go back to the playground and he just wanted to keep walking. We've taken 3 nature walks this week, I could get used to this! It has been some of the more enjoyable times I've had with my kids recently. If you haven't done it, I highly reccomend it

Here's some pictures from our first trip:

We saw a lot of wild flowers and butterflies. Sister is very observant of any kind of "bu", I mean bug.

The kids really enjoyed stopping at the bridges and looking over to the water.

Towards the end of our walk we cut across a trail to get back to the concrete walking path. Beemer stopped to tell me the ground was breaking. Nature Walks are great learning experiences, we talked about how the ground breaks when it's dry. I love his attention to detail and his curiosity.

He also wanted to know what this tree stump was, he pointed to the markings on it and said "look a door"!

We made a couple stops off the trail to look at the water. Somewhere around here I noticed the massive quantities of Poison Ivy and started getting nervous. When I was younger I used to get it so bad my entire face would swell up. The last time, I had to get two shots of steroids, one of which made me pass out. Nothing has shown up yet, so maybe I'm good! I watched a tiny little snake and some fish swim in this little hole, I don't think the kids could see them.

After walking a while, Beemer spotted this lookout point. I really was ready to go back, but my little explorer had to see it so we made the trek. (Did I mention I had no stroller for Sister, so I carried her through a lot of it. It was a beautiful day, but down in the valley it was really hot!)

I wasn't really sure I should go up this little hill with my recently spranged ankle. But, it was the quickest route and at that point I was so hot I didn't care! I handled it with caution.

When we got to the top Sister reached out her hand to hold hands with her big bro'. It was so sweet!

We didn't get to spend much time up there, but the view was great. Off in the distance I can see the top of the picnic area where we started. It's rare that you get to get out in the middle of nature living in the city. But, I'm discovering that there are quite a few places near me to do so.