Nature Walk

Christina got the bright idea today that it would be enjoyable to take the girls on a nature walk. She envisioned two little children scampering before her, picking up twigs and flowers, and stowing these in their pails. She envisioned coming home and making a nature collage with their found bits. She, clearly, had never taken a nature walk with 22 month old children before.

First, the girls thought the car ride to get there was too long. Christina kept saying: "Can you see any horses?? Look for them!" to distract the girls. They love horses. Sadly, there were no horses out today, even though Clara would answer "Uh huh, yeah!" every time Christina asked her if she saw one.

We got to the trailhead, and the girls got much more excited. Christina, slightly less so, realizing she had forgotten both pails and a back-up stroller.

It was fun to be out of the car, and fun to hunt for....rocks? Yep, the part of nature that is on every driveway and in front of our own house is the part of nature that most captured them.

Clara did veer off to find some pinecones, but they were too big to take home without the pails:

And Elena really minded when Clara went off trail. She'd keep going the (few paces) off the trail to haul her sister back. Clara loved it.

Elena looks like she's hunting pine cones here, but really she's playing with the bug spray. There were lots of mosquitoes, but as soon as Christina whipped this out it was the argued-over plaything for the rest of the "walk:"

Another moment of Elena guiding Clara back to the trail, after she had stumbled:

Clara loved that game so much that as soon as Elena hauled her up, Clara would plop down again, saying: "Oh, help!" Elena indulged her the first three times, then wandered off with the bug spray. Clara kept saying "Up, up, up" to Christina, who was hauling a diaper bag, soft dog, and the few sticks/flowers we'd found. Eventually, the sticks/flowers had to go in favor of getting Clara back to the truck.

One last look at two sweet sisters:

So, in the end we covered less than 1/4 mile in an hour, took home no lasting memories of the nature we walked through, smelled like bug spray, and had several scrapes from a few tumbles. Not exactly the vision, but it was a fun time. And bonus - the girls are both downstairs right now sleeping like the little rocks they found on the trail.