FAMILY HIKE

Today wasn't quite as sunny and warm as yesterday, but it was still nice enough to encourage us to get outside and get into nature. Poor Buster doesn't get out much, so we wanted to test him out at Rocky Springs and see what he thinks of trail hiking and stream splashing. Turns out he likes nature. A lot. Especially sand. But it wears him out even more than the kids (both of whom should have crashed in the car on the way home for lunch, but neither did). The morning was fun for all of us and we're glad we took this weekend a bit like last year and spent some extra quality time together!

 

Headin' on down the old trace to the stream...

Just look at that dog's smile! Ready to chase daddy down the "beach"! (P.S. Jay is not magically hovering, he is mid-jump)

The water was so cold that Baby Doll's feet turned red (rather quickly). I was concerned, but Jay said "Don't worry, when they get really cold they'll get out and just play in the sand." He was right.

I promised them that if they paused and smiled for just one photo that I would leave them alone and just take candid shots the rest of the morning. Apparently that deal sounded pretty solid to them...

It's confirmed, Buster can swim!

Running straight for mommy so he could shake his mess of water and sand all over me. Again and again. (No, we did not let him off-leash. We so don't trust him... As fun as it would have been to watch him bound up and down that strip of sand, all we could picture was having to chase him through the woods, filled with greenbrier and poison ivy and fire ants.)

Cold Cora (warming up by piling sand on herself) and an already tuckered out Buster. He was cracking us up by speed-digging little holes to stick his booty or nose into.

Apparently he likes to chew on sticks too. He won't fetch, but he enjoyed methodically breaking branches into pieces and sort of piling them up next to himself. Does that mean he's an OCD dog?

We hunted out a few cool rocks to add to our collection, then packed it in.

Sissy got a blister from her new shoes, so she hitched a ride back to the car (a 1-mile hike) on daddy's shoulders. Bummer for him was that her lower half was completely soaked from playing in the water...

Snacking and watching James ride his bike in circles. He'd wanted to take it on the trail so bad, but we didn't want to take it down to the water and we knew parts of the trail would be impassable by bike, so we promised him he could ride while the rest of us refueled when we got back to the parking lot.

 After lunch and showers (and triple-checking to be sure nobody brought any ticks home), we rested a bit, then went to the gym for spin class, followed by our first family swim since summer. Since we're taking the kids to an indoor waterslide park in 2 weeks, we figured we should get them used to pools again. They were ridiculously excited to get their swimsuits on and get in the water. They even attempted to swim, but we have a lot of work to do... Who has tips on getting kids to lay on their bellies while kicking? Both of ours try to swim in an upright position. Perhaps it's time to enquire about private swim lessons...