Evening Walks

On father's day, the man we were celebrating requested a trip to a local park to walk one of the wooded trails there.  We, of course, honored his request.  It turns out we loved that walk so much, we've gone out several times a week since then!  We've challenged ourselves to find a variety of new trails to try out, and have had lots of fun exploring our city.  It has become a way to exercise, spend time together as a family, and unwind from our day; it's something we all look forward to when the weather cooperates.

In creating this new tradition of "going for a walk in the woods" we have carefully selected our locations.  We always choose a route that is 1.5 - 2 miles.  While the boys cooperate, for the most part, sitting in their stroller and taking in the scenes, their good moods last only so long.  They each will get out here and there to walk a bit - especially loving to cross bridges on foot. We don't force their little legs to carry them farther than they want, and always have their "seat" ready for them when they tire of providing their own transportation. We also choose to only walk where we'll encounter a playground for the boys to play for a while.  That part has definitely helped them deal with the more boring parts when our walks seem too long!

Most of the time, our walks are anything but boring, though!  There's always something to see. This is often where we've capitalized on Signing Smart opportunities.  Mr. I. especially enjoys pointing out all of the squirrels we see - and there are no shortage of them!  Just about every evening, we run into some slightly more "exotic" animals as well.  One evening we even ran into Miss Deer eating her dinner.  She must be used to people on the path, because she didn't run off.  She kept her eye on us as she munched away, but we were able to observe her for quite some time before continuing on our way!

Here are some signs we've been able to use on our recent walks:  WALK, TREE, SNAKE, DEER, EAT, TURTLE, DUCK, BIRD, and BOAT.

What fun summer traditions does your family love?