Greenbelt Hike (and lots of pics...)

Spencer and I decided that we needed to get back into the swing of things and make our weekends more productive. For the last few months, we have been doing only what we needed to do. It is so easy to get caught up relaxing. That sounds silly, but really the weekends are our only quality family time. It seems like such a waste to spend it on the couch, at the grocery store, or doing yard work. I hadn't been out hiking in quite a while and Emery had never been. Spencer suggested we head out to the greenbelt for some fresh air and quality time. We even packed a picnic to enjoy while we were out.

I brought my Ergo carrier for Emery to ride on my back. Much to my surprise, she insisted on walking most of the time. Both girls were really into climbing the rocks. Obviously, Abigail was able to get a bit more technical than her little sister but Emery gave it a good try. Abigail continued her trend of fearless behavior. That, coupled with her willingness to try anything, even had Spencer on edge when she was climbing. There were hundreds of caterpillars and Abigail even found a cave with a nest of daddy long leg spiders in it. Eww. I try to keep my comments to myself because they had a great time playing with all of the long legged beasties.

We topped off our hike with a chilly swim in the creek. There were lots of young kids hanging out. There was a group of boys that chose to ignore all of the "No Diving" signs and jumped off of a cliff into the water. Abigail waded out as far as she could and started yelling at them. "Hey guys, this is not a good idea!" She was very upset that someone would choose to ignore the rules. She continued yelling even though no one was paying attention to her. She was determined to be heard. I had to explain to her that she was wasting her breath and the boys were risking getting hurt but there was no much we could do about it. As soon as she accepted that she was not going to save the world on this particular Saturday, we got back to swimming. I brought the girls bathing suits, but left them in the car. Duh! As you see in the pics, they had to wade around in their clothes, and then hike back wet (Abigail) or without clothes (Emery).

We had such a great time. Sometimes I forget how nice it is to spend some time outdoors. Perhaps we should redefine what we call "relaxing"?