Family Night... June 10, 2008

Last night for Family Home Evening, we went for a little nature walk in a hollow near our house.  It's one of my favorite things about where we live.  My parents lived right by this place when I was still living at home, but that was before it had a paved walking path through it.  It's both better and worse now with the path.  It's much more accessible and I use it much more now with the path.  I often go running there a couple of times a week.  But it was fun when nobody was back there.  Still, the path hasn't made it crowded by any stretch and the deer and foxes still make themselves visible, so I don't mind it.

Anyway, we decided to have a nature walk for family night and Noah loved it.  We pretty much let him run wherever he wanted as long as it was safe.

He had so much fun exploring.  We went down to the creek and walked across the little water pipe to cross the flowing water (don't worry, it's only about 4 feet wide and 1 foot deep).  We walked up the big hill, as he likes to call it (it's a dam holding up a pond about 10 acres in size).  He loves walking up that hill.  Every time we go he wants to run up the hill on his own.  You should see those little legs chugging while his arms and torso go through their exaggerated rotations.  Funny.

A couple of times, Laura and Noah have gone for a walk in the Hollow while I've gone for a run.  Now, everytime we go, Noah thinks that I should go for a run.  Yesterday, he wanted to run himself.  We told him to go ahead.  It was great watching him want to be like daddy.  That's one of my favorite things about parenthood, the emulation.  It's also one about which I have to be careful.

Anyway, the running, playing with a caterpillar, crossing the creek, throwing rocks, watching crickets and stinkbugs, and carrying sticks tired Noah out.  Near the end he just wanted mommy to hold him.  See:

I'm a lucky dude, huh?  After all this getting tired, Noah really wanted a drink, so we headed off to get a drink and some ice cream cones.  Noah never did finish the ice cream cone, but it was fun to watch him try while it all ran down his arm.  All in all, a really fun family night.