One of my goals back in
September was to spend more time outside this fall. To be honest, I'm not sure at all that I even came close to accomplishing what I had in mind. I thought we'd spend every daylight hour out at the park, the back yard, fall walks, and taking the dog to the dog park. What it really turned out to be was what it always is-a few days a week when it was nice and when it worked out, we hung out outside. Most of the time though, we had chores or errands or just plain busyness that stood in the way.
We did however, make it to the Arboretum one particularly chilly day this fall. It was lovely! The stream beds had dried up, making it sort of a bouldering experience for the kids. Jamie has never been able to play in this stream bed because it's just too uneven for his still-mastering-walking feet. But since it was all dried up and not quite so slippery, he was able to navigate it quite well. We also discovered a rope bridge that I didn't know existed and although it said it was for at least 3 year-olds, Jamie ran across it a dozen times at top speed without any problems at all!
It was a lot of fun. The Arboretum, for me, is a place you have to seek out entertainment. It doesn't come to you like it does in so many other kid hot spots. It isn't blown up in bright colors or set out in a huge display. Instead you have to spend time, looking at the details and using your imagination and really getting back to the essence of being a kid to be entertained. And that's why I love it there. Because it forces my kids to look at a leaf and stop seeing it as a part of a tree but instead to view it as a hat, a plate, or a magical wand. The Arboretum is especially magical when you can get to it on days when it's deserted and the peace, quietness, and simplicity of it can speak the loudest. That's what I found when we went this fall. I can't wait to go back on a day when it isn't quite warm enough to draw crowds but warm enough that my kiddos can get their feet dirty without their toes falling off.
The interesting part comes in that while Anne was sledding down, I thought to myself how great it would be if John came home early and saw us sledding on the hill and then we actually went sledding for real. This seemed impossible since it was only 4 pm and John had another hour before he was even off work. I forgot that it was the day before Christmas Eve and since everyone had Christmas Eve off (due to Christmas being on a Saturday), John actually was getting off early that day. Not joking, two minutes after I thought how neat it would be for him to come home, he pulled up! He was quite surprised to see us out in the snow since I've never hidden the fact that playing out with the kids in the snow-especially by myself-is not my cup of tea. About 10 seconds after he got out, I said "Let's go sledding!" John and I are no where near fly by the seat of your pants people. Normally to go sledding we'd have to plan for it at least a day in advance. Not to mention at that point, we'd have at best 20 minutes of day light left. Still, it seemed fun and doable so with just a little prodding (and I mean not much at all) John loaded the kids up (who were ideally already dressed and ready to go), I threw the sleds in the trunk and off we went! It was fairly warm when we left to go but even 15 minutes later, with a setting sun, had a big difference in the temperature. By the time we got to the hill it was a good 10 degrees colder (I thought). We only had about 20 minutes left of daylight but still, we took advantage of it. Jamie has a baby sled, where he can be strapped in and it has some sort of piece on the back that makes it anti-tip so he was able to go down by himself. John and I took turns going down with Anne. She did great and was such a trooper. I'm excited to go back when there's more daylight and it isn't quite so fridged.
Daddy and Jamie going down-John holding the ropes to keep some sort of control on Jamie's sled.
