Family Hike

You make the announcement on a sunny Saturday morning, “Let’s go for a Family Hike!”  The support pours in immediately, ‘do we have to’, ‘it’s cold out there’, ‘how long will we be gone?’  Kids! 

Thankfully I get to play my Mom card and today I have decided we are going on a Family Hike so that is what we shall do!  Coats, hats, mitts, boots, splash pants on and the whole family is in the car for the 5 minute drive to the trails.  I know they will love this.  ‘How long is the drive?’, ‘where are we going?’,  ‘why do we have to go?’, 'are we there yet?'  They are really looking forward to this.

Funny thing is, they have a blast.  The day is gorgeous and surprise, surprise, Mom is right.  A Family Hike is just what we all needed.  The trail was a new one for us and the kids loved exploring.  We found ice on the path into the trails, a bridge across a small creek, boulders to climb, a ladder to get up a huge embankment, a stump to sit on, a log to climb on and sunlight bouncing off the snow at the top of our climb.  The kids collected sticks, threw makeshift snowballs, chased each other, chased us, climbed, slid and laughed.

Sometimes, you need to nudge everyone out of the house to get some exercise in the crisp winter air but I'm pretty confident once you let them loose on the trails, they will be happy they were so eager to go! I say when it comes to Family Hikes, Mom knows best.  Get outside and have some fun.