I was really in the mood for a hike. C still takes a regular nap so it is hard for me to justify (due to many reasons…this is for another post) taking off too far from home especially during the week. We regularly frequent this park and there is a great simple trail along the outside perimeter that is perfect for little hikers. There are bunnies, all sorts of different trees, leaves, rocks and sticks to collect and you are always close to your car (which is important to me when my husband isn’t there to help carry the load).
The boys were really excited. We usually just play at the playground at this park, it felt good to walk and do something different. My boys were very curious and great observers.
Within the first 20 ft of the trail we found roots from trees sticking out on the trail. C yells to me “what’s this mama?” pulling at the roots. I said to C “They are roots from trees, can you find which trees they come from?” and C says “They are bumpy and long!”. L ran back to us to see what C was so interested in. L started following the roots back to the tree looking for where they came from.
We walked for about 20 min talking about the different trees, trying to figure out where different branches that we found on the ground came from, we quietly observed some bunnies eating, and we even had to stand in a sunny spot for a few minutes to warm up from the shade of the trees.
And then we heard something…it was such a distraction I knew the boys would be finished with the hike. That was fine, this would be great fun too. There was a front loader driving to the park’s dumpster and yard waste area. Both boys ran at top speed to keep up with the front loader to get a better view.
The front end loader (which in the picture above, you can just see the bucket of the front end loader on the right side of the dumpster) was crushing all the debris in the dumpster. Now, this might not sound like a huge deal but to L it is HUGE. He loves trash, yard waste, dumpsters, it is his absolute obsession. So, to get to watch a front end loader (which C is a huge fan of) crush debris in a dumster…it is like two desserts at dinner time for my boys. They stood in one place watching for more than 10 minutes (I think this is a record).
It felt so good to get out on even a simple trail, to observe the trails surroundings and just listen to my boys thoughts and ideas. We played at the playground for a short time after this and we all had a great rest in the afternoon. This was a great way to spend our morning.
