I think I have mentioned this before, but P and Em are TOTAL OPPOSITES!
It cracks me up and amazes me all at the same time.
The last past week (minus one great day) has been rough to say the least. This single mom thing (thanks to busy season) is really wearing me down. Lately I have not been the kind of mom that I want and should be for my kids. So glad that children are so forgiving.
Anyway, today we just needed to GET OUT and DO SOMETHING. We were all getting cabin fever after being couped up in the house all week. We decided to go on a bike ride with some of our besties. We met at Lime Ridge so we could park there and hop on the canal trail to ride to Heather Farms. We packed lunch, water, even some sand toys to play with and were all super excited. Well, as we were getting the bikes ready we realized we were missing the piece that connect the tailor to the bike... kind of critical.
Instead of getting bummed out we looked up... literally and realized we were at a perfect place to hike and let the kids run free. So we did! The kids of course wanted to go straight up the hill instead of the long way around, so we did.
Here they are, Kings & Queen of the Mountain!
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| Love their genuine smiles in this picture. They really had such a blast today. |
I had never been to Lime Ridge before, so it was a new adventure to me as well. Honestly, I kind of loved it. It was open, yet safe to let the kids run free ... within reason of course. The words "Freeze" and "Stop" were used frequently to say the least. But for the most part, the kids did awesome.
And here is where you learn about one of the ways P and Em are so different. P loves to run. I'm not joking when I say this 3 year old can run a mile without stopping. He has crazy endurance and LOVES to be the leader (which in his brain means 1st place). Em on the other hand... she acts as if the world will stop if she stops. Takes things as slow as she wants. She is my little observant one. Always the first to find things (which always made P mad when we were doing Elf on the Shelf). She stops to look at the rocks, and ants, and grass, and mud and everything in between. Sure every once in a while she run with her buddies, but for the most part, she knows what she wants and she does it. See picture below as a visual.
The poor girl is not even in any pictures, but she couldn't care less. This has always cracked me up but some times makes things difficult. No matter where we are walking, in the store, to the park, to the library, on a hike... you name it, it applies, I am shouting "P, Slow down!" in one direction and "Em, HURRY UP!" in the other as I stand in the middle trying to make sure both are safe and yet both can explore in the way they need. Tricky business being the mother of a cheetah and a snail, but I love it none the less.
Today was the perfect day to go do this too. Started out a little chilly, but the sun came out in full force which my soul really needed today. It felt amazing to look over the city and to be able to see for miles and miles and remind the kids that Heavenly Father made this beautiful world for us.
Life is so good!
We need to get out and do little adventures like this more often. Anyone know of other cool places like this that are a good safe place for us to play and explore? And anyone want to join us? The more the merrier! :)
p.s. Thanks to my awesome friend Liz for these priceless pictures and for helping us get out of the house! Someday I'll have a cool phone and will be able to take my own pics, I promise. :)
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