out of the woods

we (meaning me and the kids) just got back from the forest. it's only a bit past 9:30am now, but it's already felt like the longest day ever, and i'm already rockin' a huge headache. let me backtrack...

because it's supposed to be 85 degrees and sunny out today, i thought it would be best to carpe diem and get out early and go for a little picnic with the kiddos at a local vernal pool. we usually venture into the forest with daddy, who with his ex-military-navigational-skills (just a hint of sarcasm here) can get us out of any we-have-no-compass related quandry. but today i decided that we were going to make.this.day.ours.! with the picnic packed, and the kids ready to go, we arrived at the tiny parking lot and started on the trail.

only to realize that we literally had to hike up rocks with my non-hiking-stroller. i stupidly brought the regular baby-trend (uugh!) stroller, and not our more ergonomically-friendly one for hiking adventures. but dammit, we were getting to the water! slowly, i began to realize that last week we.had.a.huge.flood. the area that we were "hiking" in was literally submerged last week. another brain fart moment.

and then i realized, as we got closer to the larger-than-usual vernal pool that we.were.getting.swarmed.by.thousands.of.breeding.mosquitoes. being the good mom that i am, i did not pack anything to protect my sweet baby skins from the attacks. i looked down and joey was covered. i took one look at gray and said "run!" of course, she takes the opportunity to go a face dive on some rocks and comes up bleeding. "run anyway!" seriously, i'm lucky nobody was around to see, especially DSS.

getting away from the mosquitoes, with the exception of the ones still a'suckin' on our bodies...we make our way back (or what i thought was back) to the car. as we keep walking, and walking, and walking, i realize that somewhere along the way we took a wrong turn, or something. now we're hiking up rock faces with the stroller and gray in her little crappy tennis shoes and me in my flip flops, trying to partially carry the stroller when the rocks get too big. we're f'ing lost! and gray's all "this was your idea to go for a walk, and all i wanted to do was stay home, but no! mama wants to go for a walk! and now we're lost. great, we're lost. why don't you call daddy and tell him we're lost. now we're never going to find the car!" and i'm all "we're not lost, but what's up with that 'caution' tape all over the trail markers? well, let's go down this way anyway, i'm sure it can't be that bad."

oh, it was. we literally went down the side of a mountain, following what i thought was the right trail, only to find ourselves at the bottom, and the trail flooded (explains the caution tape, i guess)- having to make our way back up. gray falls again. i feel like i'm in a movie (like the scene in babel when the nanny is in the desert with the two kids and she's trying to find her way and she has nothing to drink...). except i had food. and a cell phone. but no f'ing compass (not like i'd know how to use one anyway). where was the f'ing car? and is that the highway? we were waaaay far away from where i knew the car to be parked in relation to said-strip of highway, people.

to make a reaaaaly long story short, we made it back to the car. gray was such a trooper, hiking for miles and miles with hardly-a-complaint. joey was oblivious to our hiking mishaps, except for the occasional whiplash when i slammed head-on to rocks and the carriage just wouldn't budge. we saw a butterfly on the path right in front of us, brown with white-tipped wings, and it landed on a rock and let us talk to it. we sang songs together. we laughed at the ridiculousness of our adventure. although i wanted to cry at times, gray ended the hike by saying "our car! i finally see our car. thank you mama for getting us out of there. see what happens when we're brave together?"



this whole weekend was spent frolicing in the woods (with daddy supervision) and in greenhouses and with our hands in the dirt, celebrating the earth. many more stories to come.