Boys and Mud

Courtesy of google

   Last Saturday was sunny and not overly cold, so we went out.  I thought it would be fun to head to a park near my parents' home, take a "muddy hike" on a back trail, play for a bit, then hang out at my parents' house to let out the cat while they were gone for the weekend. 

   The boys saw the playground and were so excited about that, they complained about having to take the walk first. Whine whine, drag, drag.  "When are we done?"  "Why do we have to do this first?"  It wasn't their worst whining, but they were anxious to get it over with at least.  During this time we were walking along a paved path.  Finally I saw a small trail going off into the grass.  Was this the one I was looking for?  We gave it a try.  Immediately, the boys had a 180 attitude adjustment.  We hopped over streams and ducked under branches.  When the trail faded into nothing I decided it was the wrong one and we walked back and kept along until I found the right one.  By now the boys knew what was coming.

   We had the best time on this short walk which took us along a path parallel to the park and connecting back into it on a farther side.  There was lots of mud (including some crunchy frozen mud) and fallen trees to climb over.  Brennan led us with all the excitement of a 6 year old explorer.  Asher liked it well enough but he wasn't as enthusiastic as Brennan.  Interestingly, Asher was the one with rain boots so we were encouraging him to walk through the little streams rather than jumping over them.  Yes, we had to encourage him.  He was rather unsure about it.  Shouldn't little boys be born ready to wade through streams?  At one point Asher tripped and landing on his hands, which made him cry in despair about getting muddy. What?  I thought about my adventures as a child getting muddy and exploring wildernesses and saw how my boys took these things in as if they were new experiences.  And I realized, we clearly need to be doing this WAY more often.  Luckily, Brennan has already requested to go back there Monday after school.