Went out with the complete brood today. Tackled a fairly easy trail at a
local park in search of Happy Dogs. Found all three of Scout Dog's boxes
and a bonus box by Franzsolo to boot! And in the bonus box was another
bonus entitled Mooney's Third Hitch Hiker! Wow! I had been working on the
kids about discretion and think I blew it all when I was sitting on the log
shouting "It s a hitch hiker! I found a hitch hiker!" Anyhow, Mooney's
third will journey out to the Windy City sometime next month. I figure a HH
shoudl be well traveled. after all.

The kids loved stamping in--the older two have their own (commercial)
stamps and a log book now. My 6yo actually labelled each of her stamps
herself, so I can now add journal writing to the benefits of boxing. The
15mo walked a good half mile before melting down and daddy took her back to
the car--it was pretty hot and muggy, so I felt a bit like crying a few
times as well, but those boxes jsut kept me motivated. We all got over some
of our aversion to dirt and to bugs. The kids are now fighting over who
gets to retreive the box (after Mama makes sure their are no critters and
crawleis) and who gets to hide it. They are getting the idea of "secret
treasure hunt" tho the 4yo announces loudly when someone is coming.

In additon to the stamps, we saw some horses on an adjoining trail, lots of
cool bugs, frogs dragonflies, butterflies, nifty caterpillars hanging from
trees and a mondo wasp's nest--bigger than a basket ball! Looked to be
defunct, but I sure didn't poke at it to see.

My hubby lectured on fallen trees (I ws busy stamping so only heard the
drone, lol) and we all learned that my 6yo is better with the compass than I
am. After a commemorative picture at the start/end of the trail, we headed
home hot, dirty, tired, and happy.

How can anything that involves so much dirt, bugs, and sweat be so much darn
fun?
Mama Stork
aka Pam in Cinci
F6



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