hiking...

someone else to do the baby wearing!

one of my favorite things to do is go for a hike. i love being outside, surrounded by trees instead of cars. it feels so good. hiking with children is not always easy, especially when they are small. my oldest, jack henry, was a great hiker from a very early age. he just liked to be constantly moving, so we could set him on a path and he would just keeping going! he climbed a mountain at a year and a half! then came sidney. oh boy, she did not like to hike at all. it was fine as long as we could carry her in the back pack but when she got too heavy it became an arduous experience trying to get her to walk. just mention the word "hike" and she would start to whine. we started calling them "nature walks" to try to fool her but she caught on pretty quickly. distracting her helped. reading about plants and animals along the way. finding interesting things to look for, bringing friends along, all of these helped somewhat. it really has only been the last year or so that she finally started to like it (or at least accept that it was inevitable). of course that was the time tess came along! luckily she loves being outside. it is her favorite thing to do. she is not such a big fan of the carrier though and obviously is not ready to walk the trails very far yet (she likes to stop and stand on every single rock, you can imagine how long that takes!). so, we still have a few years of slow going ahead of us. it is worth it though. it is good for me and it is good for them. i want them to value nature and hopefully continue to choose to be out in it. it is not always the peaceful experience i imagine when heading out the door but i'm always glad we do it. i think maybe some hiking dates with my husband may help too!

do you hike with your little ones, or your older children/teenagers? is it a family tradition? one you grew up with? we didn't do any camping when i was little but i have very fond memories of some beautiful hikes we took, both in california where i grew up and in kentucky where we visited family every year. i hope to take my kids to visit some of those same places too.

these are all photos from our hike last weekend, except the last one which is from our daily hike around the neighborhood! we are looking hopefully for signs of fall!