Naturally

Ahh, Nature, how we love ya

Now.

Not always.

Depends on which way the wind is blowing.

Last summer we went to the Rock House retreat in the mountains for vacation, and I tried in vain to engage the kids in - gasp - hiking along a trail. Natalie acted like a mini Paris Hilton. She quite literally clutched a small fluffy bunny purse close to her body and made a high-pitched moaning sound the entire time. Except when she was shrieking like a crazy woman, "I don't like to be in Nature!!" Liam was the man of caution, scolding me that the foot bridge we used looked like a life-threatening hazard. "This just doesn't look safe to me...not safe at all!" He even looked for bones lying around it from others who may have gone before us. The bridge was probably at the most a year old. Owen was left at home with Jim because there were lots and lots of bugs, and that meant non-stop shrieking from little Mr Bug Phobia. I was left disheartened and convinced that my kids were going to grow up in plastic bubbles with no appreciation of the great outdoors. Not that I'm a big camper or anything, but I do appreciate nature and the great outdoors from time to time.

Then in the Fall I dragged them to a local park for another hike. Unfortunately, Liam spotted a sign warning that a mountain lion had been spotted in the area a few weeks earlier, and once again I had 3 moaning, whimpering children who jumped every time a leaf crunched and scolded me for endangering their very lives.

But recently we either had a break through or the wind changed direction for a couple of hours. We went on a family hike and everyone enjoyed it. We didn't need a stroller. We walked a long way (really, who knew that we should have read that map at the beginning that would have shown us just how long the "outer loop" was). No one complained, at least not about "being in nature." We saw a water snake. {Ick.} There were noisy bugs, and Owen was only moderately concerned. Natalie - be still my heart - was even heard to exclaim, "I want to have my birthday party in Nature this year!" (No, I won't hold her to that. But it was nice to hear from her.) Liam assumed the Leader and navigator role. He even added some humor at the end of the walk when Natalie and Owen went running off to play on a playground and Liam remarked, "Natalie is just WEIRD! How can she have so much energy now, after walking so far?!" (Oh, Liam, have you already reached the age when your energy has a limit? Welcome to my world. It's all downhill from here.)

It was so nice that I didn't even complain near the end when I was sweating like crazy and cursing myself for not reading that map, while carrying Owen on my shoulders because the poor kid had completely worn out his little legs. We might just have to do this more often.