A (Thankful) Walk in the Woods

Oh, my goodness!

Little kiddos, the sun is not that bright!

 

A week and a half ago,

I decided we were going to go to a local college and check out the trails.

Just, you know, explore.

I figure God has us here for one more year,

we better do some things we've never done here.

 

I hear about families that "hike" and go to fun places all the time.

They go up north, they go to on bike trails and they hike.

These families camp and seem to have so much fun together.

 

Now, let me make one thing clear to you:

We are NOT that family!

And that's OK

(although, I secretly wish we were)

Tom has a really bad back and will never be active like that.

In fact, when I decided to go do this,

I knew he would not be able to go

(and he's OK with that)

 

So, I tell the kids after Mass that Sunday,

"We're going to St John's to explore and go on a nature walk",

half the kids freaked out!

 

"Why?" "how long will it take?"

"But I wanted to call my friends!"

 

"Do we all have to go?"

"Do you have to bring your camera?"
"Can I bring my DS for the ride?"
(NO!)

And on and on and on.

 

"Yes, you are all going, and you will love it!"

 

See?  We are not that family.

I have to make my kids go.

 

But you know what? 

They loved it!

They were all happy we went.

I'll take you along and  try to be real here,

so, I'll try to show you what is behind the pictures.

 

 So, out at St John's University,

there is this giant "stick  house" as we call it.

I will let the next picture tell the story, but

It's a really fun thing to go see and play in!

It says it would be in place for 2 years, but they've given us an extra year!

(they must have known we'd still be in Minnesota this year!) 

 Now, I'll be honest here, I had to promise

a special treat on the way home, if they, in return,

let me take as many pictures as I want!

 

 And I had to remind them of this promise several times.

 This one is definitely not going on the Christmas card.

Alright, let's go.

 

 There are 2 paths, one going one way, towards this building thing full of people,

and the other going another way where no one is in sight.

 We choose the empty path

 I stop several times to try to capture the beauty all around me.

God, just giving us so much to be Thankful for in His splendid world!

 She's measuring the grass that is taller than she is!

 Beautiful birch trees

 

My camera just simply can not capture the beauty around us.

Thankful it's such a nice, warm day!

We are able to take our time and enjoy the sunshine!

We decide to take a little side path off the main path.



It brings us here.

 Look at that blue water!

Perfect spot for a picture!

 Thank you God for 6 year olds. 

We will not be using this one in the Christmas card either.

(she's always moving, so her face is blurry and she's shadowing Sims)

 The kids say, "How about up here on this little hill?"

Nope.  Too dark. And no one has their eyes open!!

 Now, what happened next, is not because my jeans were too tight, really it's not.

I knelt down one leg in front of the other (kind of like a lunge) to get that last picture and

somehow my pants ripped....go ahead, click on the picture, make it bigger.

 You can click on this picture too, but the rip kind of hides itself because

my jeans are not tight.

But they ripped!!

(the rip is a couple inches from my butt)

 

Dang it, these were my favorite jeans.

The rip continued to rip with every step, all the way across my leg.

 

I'm keeping my jeans. 

I'm going to wear them someday when I have no place to go

 

Now the kids are kind of getting into these pictures

There's a treat involved and we are closer to that treat, and hey, this walk is not that bad.

"Hey mom, take a picture of us looking at the pond!"



 I kind of like this picture without the kids in it...really, it was so beautiful.

I could have just sat there for hours.

 Well,  not really, because, I did have the kids with and they wanted to keep moving.

We had no idea how long this path was, but we were going to keep going until the end.

 We stop Oh, maybe 26 or 34 times total to get rocks out of our boots

and find other rocks to dig out of the ground.

 Pure beauty.

If I had a lot of money and a lot of time

I think I'd be a photographer.

Well, I'd like to learn how to be a photographer!

 "Mom, take a picture of me in this tree."

See?  They are liking this walk now.

 

 I spy the beautiful berries nearby.

 Cutie Pies!

Thankful for this.

 

 This path ends up going all the way around this little pond.

 Now, the path says it goes to some kind of waterway dock...do we go or turn around?

 We go!

Come on girls!

It's not scary!

 Some are ahead of me, some are behind.

 I wonder what they were talking about here...(or fighting about)

 Wow, how long is this dock?

It's long.

And it's wobbly and there are no fences to keep anyone from falling in.

I figure it's not deep, it will be OK if someone falls in.

 Perfect spot for a picture!

(or not)

 It's coming to an end, into the woods!

 Pictures do not show the feeling  you get in this section of woods!

It's SO cool!!

It's like you are between two hills, walking through, the only color you can see is YELLOW!

 There are so many leaves that have fallen, it's hard to find where the path is!

There are fallen trees everywhere.

We can see the sun glistening through the tops of the yellow trees!

 A nature-made balancing beam

 The color in my picture just did not give what we actually saw justice.

Ah!  Thank you PicMonkey!

This is truly what we actually saw!

 I think we could have spent hours just in this woods! 

I felt like a kid again, wanting to just explore, climb on trees

and kick leaves!

(and stay!)

 Before PicMonkey

 After! 

 (side note: Does anyone have certain settings they like to use with PicMonkey?)
 

 We are almost done.

OK, OK, I'll stop!

 We look back to the woods, wondering if we'll ever come back.

The kids try to make me promise not to bring my camera next time.

This tree-bush thing was super soft.

Thank you for coming along with us on this Fall walk!

Thankful we live in a world with so many precious gifts from God

just there for us to enjoy.

Look around, there is beauty everywhere.
Almost as beautiful as the beach!