Just Us ~ Week 7 ~ A Little Adventure

May 04, 2020

Just Us ~ Week 7 ~ A Little Adventure

Emery and Auggie used to wake up asking, "What are we doing today?" We have always been a go and do kind of family, and they had become accustomed to that. Eight weeks ago that was us. Always up for an adventure. Always a little something fun planned. While we have grown accustomed to our new normal, and we really can't complain, I for one had been feeling the need to go and do....something.

The best thing about kids is sometimes the more simple the adventure, the better. Some of my favorite memories have been completely free, stumbled on by accident, and have left us tired yet smiling. Thats what I wanted and had been missing. So on Saturday morning we got up early, put on play clothes, and headed south with a picnic packed, ready for a day of fun.

I had not woken the kids up for seven weeks (we believe in sleeping in around here). I barely whispered "good morning" and the big two shot out of bed. It was sweet to see their excitement.

Two years ago we hiked the Garden of the God's down south and then stumbled upon Ferne Clyffe State Park. It has the best trail--you can easily just walk on the trail and the end is a waterfall...or you can be like us and only travel off the beaten path and still end up at the beautiful end. We knew this little trip would be right up the big kids ally; they spend hours exploring our creek everyday. We were right. They could have explored for days. Bennett is in the business of thinking he can do anything they can do, so Doug and I were excited to see what he thought of the trip. He was cautious at first and always needed a hand.

Thirty minutes later he was exploring with the big two. We had to make him slow down and hold our hands, and he only fell down a hand full of times. Every time he would say, "Uh oh...fell down-gin" and would get up and brush himself off.

Em was good at making sure he was safe.

It was a race at all times for Aug. This picture makes me smile. He might be a Momma's boy, but he wants to be just like Daddy.

We took our time exploring. We saw one snake, a few frogs, some weird big worm things and all the glorious ferns I could ever want to see.

We made it to the (trickling) waterfall where we quickly shed our shoes and socks to wade around in the water.

I am not kidding when I say that the water from the fall was the coldest water I have ever felt. It hurt it was so cold. The kids of course didn't seem to mind. Em was the first to test it out. Water Girl.

Aug always finds the best walking sticks.

Bennett spent most of his time throwing walks to make splashes.

And I just watched. I could watch them explore all day.

After our wade in the ice water we decided to get braver and hike a bit higher on the way back. When I look at this picture I can hear Bennett yelling, "WAIT ME!!!"

Story of his life.