Exploring

My little guys took me "exploring" the other day.  I knew that the boys thought this was a fun activity to do with Grandma and Grandpa, but I had no idea that their version of exploring was so sophisticated.  This was actually a trek through the woods.  Both little guys seemed to understand the concept of following the dirt trails into the woods and both were actually eager to do it!  Ok, the little one didn't exactly want to stay on the trail, but nevertheless, I was very impressed by their bravery in the woods.

The pictures don't really do the trails justice.  At a few points they do get really small and interesting.  I'm not quite sure how the trails actually ended up in some woods in the middle of a suburban town, but whoever blazed the way did a great job!  We could have explored for at least another hour.  And this was quite a hike for my toddlers.  The little one spent most of the journey on top of Grandpa's shoulders.

When I was a little girl, my family used to go visit state parks in Indiana where we would walk on elaborate trails through the woods.  And even though I am not, and never will, consider myself to be an outdoorsy girl, I still like little hikes in the woods.  Thankfully, the heat and dry weather kept many of the Texas critters off of our path.  (I really had visions of finding a rattler in the high grass--especially when my parents decided to stop and have an entire conversation in the high grass!)  Of course, as the pictures below will show you, the dry spell also changed the course of our adventure as we were able to walk through the dry creek bed when we got "lost."   Let's just say that Little Bear Creek, the creek that flooded many homes and backyards a few years back, is completely dry today.

I'm sure I'll get to do a lot more exploring in the future with my little scouts.  And I'm pretty sure that our hikes will get more elaborate in the future as well.  But this week I was proud to not only survive the walk through the woods, but to do so with very few scrapes, stickers, and absolutely no poison ivy.  Thank goodness I bought a pair of tennis shoes last week!