A Riding We Will Go

Whew.

Rounded out this jam-packed three-day weekend of outdoor fun with a trip to my parent's house outside of Charlottesville, VA. My Mom has a small horse farm (and by small I mean a measely 30-some-odd horses) that I grew up on and the kids LOVE to visit. Of course, I didn't care one lick about growing up on a horse farm when I lived there, but I do appreciate the lifestyle a lot more now that I'm grown and have become "citified." Now I think of it more as a great place to visit, but still not somewhere that I'd like to live for long. Its a small step, but a good one.

The kids, of course, think the horse farm is a little patch of heaven. They get to be outside practically ALL DAY, between the barn, the playset, the lawn tractor and the expansive deck and pool, its even better than Chuck E. Cheese to them. Yeah, really!

They both got to ride their ponies, and the older one is becoming a pretty decent rider. I sometimes wish we lived closer so he could ride more often, I think he'd really get into it if he could. His trot actually looks quite good, but he's still too scared to canter. I tried running next to him to help out, but only succeeded in scaring him and the pony worse. I think the best way to do it would be to ride double with him so he gets the feel of it. He's such a meek little kid sometimes, I really don't know where he gets that from...

My little one rode his pony "all by myself" and is starting to get the hang of steering. We also trotted for a while with me holding both him and the pony, and my little man just giggle and grinned and didn't want me to stop! Unfortunately, I'm not as 'in shape' as I should be and couldn't keep up that pace for long!

An evening on the deck with food off the grill was the perfect way to end the long weekend. Funny, we have no less than THREE decks at our own house, but something just feels better and right and cozy about the deck at my parent's place. I could sit out there all day and all night. I'll have to put my finger on it someday and bottle up that feeling to sell to the masses. The kids are really lucky to have Grandparents that love the out of doors and practically live outside all day, especially when they get to ride horses any time they want!

I think we spent a total of 15 hours indoors the entire weekend, and most of that was to sleep. The kids and I and their Dad are all fairly exhausted, but also very happy and content. I do wish every weekend could be so filled with fun and fresh air. But right now, its time for a good long sleep!

Tiger Cub Spring Leave No Trace Hike

In an effort to help those that may not have gotten all the requirements done for the Cub Scout Leave No Trace patch, I organized a hike at Robious Landing Park for today. Interestingly, the kids who showed up were all ones that I don't think actually needed the hike for the patch. I don't want some of the boys feeling left out about not earning things that the other boys are, but I'm not sure what else I can do to help them get into the activities. It breaks my heart to pass a boy by with an award just because he couldn't make a hike or a camping trip or some other event.

But anyway, we still had a lovely day hiking at the park, which runs along the James River. First we reviewed the Leave No Trace principals. I asked them to name some from memory, and they all seemed to want to keep nameing the one pertaining to not littering, Trash Your Trash. At least we know that idea is firmly implanted in their heads! I then gave the kids a printout from the Virginia Department of Forestry website that listed common trees of virginia with drawings of their leaves. They really did seem to get into trying to find all the trees on the list, and we think we got pretty close.

We did the 1.5 mile circut trail, which was just the right length for this rather hot day. I had the two boys with me, but DH stayed home. Turned out his knee was a bit sore from the bike hike yesterday. See what the ripe old age of 33 does to you? YS was his usual talkative self on the trail, talking to anyone that would listen and to himself when someone wasn't there to hear. He bounded along with the big kids and had a grand old time. OS hiked way up at the front, as usual. He always wants to be the trail leader. He chatted with all his friends about all the inane things kids talk about while looking for leaves that were not yet checked off his list. We always have a great time with the Tigers, and hikes are much more fun with a group!

After the hike we took out our picnic lunches and took a well deserved rest under a shady tree. The boys were back up and playing on the playground after only a few moments to eat, though. I swear I don't remember having that much energy when I was a kid.

A thouroughly enjoyable hike with great company. If only I could have gotten the kids who really needed the experience to come, I'd be even happier with the hike's success.

First Bike Hike!

Let me start out by saying that I think we missed the boat on getting my OS started on riding a "big boy" bike without training wheels. Partly due to my own laziness, partly due to his own timidness, its just not something we ever got around to until the end of last summer. He was already 6, and boy were DH and I ashamed when the neighbor's not-yet four year old hopped on his bike without training wheels not long after our OS finally started to ride on his own.

But, he is now a pretty confident, albeit somewhat shakey, proud rider of a two-wheeler. We practiced a little through the winter but the rather unusual amount of snow and cold made it difficult to get out as much as we would have liked. So now we are finally getting out on occasional bike rides around the neighborhood and its been a nice thing to be able to do as a family (YS rides in a seat on my bike, not on his own). The problem is, our neighborhood is SOOOOO hilly, even us adults have to get off our bikes and walk them up the hills sometimes, and poor little OS's legs don't do any better.

So I really wanted to get out somewhere that we could ride on more level ground and farther than the confines of our little streets. Having been to a local park, Hugenout Park, I knew it had nice wide gravel trails and a surprisingly level lay of the land. Problem is, we don't have a bike rack. After some manuevering, we managed to get one adult and two children's bikes into the rear of our SUV, and strapped the other adult bike onto the roof on its side. Yeah, not the coolest looking family driving down the road, but I'm glad we made the effort.



Our family's first bike hike went even better than expected. OS was able to lead the way the whole time, and we didn't even have to crawl along to match his speed. YS talked non-stop from his seat, as usual, and declared that this park shall forever be known as "Bike Trail Park." Sure, i can go with that. I estimate we biked about 3 miles, though a lot of that was circling around so its hard to say for sure. OS never once said he was tired and only fell when he wasn't looking and hit a tree (no injuries, not even a wimper!). Sometimes my family still surprises me as to how much fun we can have on an outing.

We rounded out the day with some time on the playground and a stop at the ice cream truck conveniently placed int he parking lot. Well, at least we'd burned enough calories to compensate for some of those popsicles!

We definitely will be doing another bike hike soon. It was a wonderful experience and I'm so glad we finally got to try it!