The Great Outdoors

One of the key things Matt and I want to ensure our kids keep as they grow up in our world of video games, cell phones and other technical gadgets is a love of being outdoors.  We have been looking around for local hikes to take them on and we discovered that Lord Hill Park is very close to our house and offers miles of hiking.  We had a rare weekend day free in early September so we packed up a lunch and headed out to enjoy the day.

The kids loved the hike at first with Ben running wildly along the path yelling "run, run, run, jump" and doing just that as he narrowly missed tripping on roots, rocks, and all sorts of obstacles in his path.  He is nimble like a cat which is very lucky given the rate of speed he chooses.  

When we stopped for lunch we tried to get the kids to pose for a picture in this cute little clearing but what we got instead was stinging nettles. You can see in this picture that Ben is just discovering that something is hurting his legs.  Kenzie managed to walk right through them unharmed but Ben got a few bumps but didn't seem to care after I rescued him from clearing.  You have to be tough if you're going to play outside!

  

We ended up hiking about two miles which I think is pretty good given we didn't carry the kids at all.  They did pretty good on the way out but on the way back having some treats to use as incentives to keep them moving helped.  The most exciting thing we saw was horses.  This is a horse park as well as a hiking park.  We probably saw ten different horses on parts of the path with us.

Here's Matt and the kids taking a break on a bench.  I love seeing their happy faces as they enjoy some great family time hiking.

It was a great way to spend a sunny day and we will definitely be returning to Lord Hill Park in the near future for more adventures.  Maybe we can make it three miles next time!