Adventure Days

Our Adventure Day to the dino tracks was such a hit that the kids and I decided to make it a weekly ritual. We've set aside one day each week to go on an adventure. We swam at a pool we'd never been to (it's now our favorite!), we grabbed free Slurpees on 7/11 and took them to a new park, we've taken hikes and bike rides. But the most memorable Adventure Day really ended up being more of an adventure than I had planned.

I read about a nearby pond, so we grabbed some old bread and the jogging stroller and headed out to feed some ducks. Well, to my surprise there were no ducks at this particular pond. I honestly thought that all suburban "ponds" had ducks living in them. I'm pretty sure all the ones in Austin did. Anyway. We learned from a guy who was there with his two school-aged boys, that this particular pond is stocked with fish, and my kids had fun watching the boys cast their lines and reel them in empty. But that interest only lasted a couple of minutes.

I was not yet ready to throw in the towel on our adventure, so I suggested we take a walk. As we headed off toward an area that had more trees, the man mentioned that there was a creek nearby. We just had to hike down a hill that was a big steep, but once down, there was a trail that follows the creek. Sounded perfect! Riley and I were wearing better shoes for hiking, so the boys, in their Crocs, just slid down the steep dirt path on their bums. As soon as we were at the creek I saw that we would have to cross it, as the trail was on the other side. No problem. My kids proved themselves adept at balancing across rocks, and we were off.

Well, this "trail" lasted about 10 yards and then we had to cross back across the creek. There were fewer rocks, so it was a little trickier this time, but we were having an adventure! When this happened again, the boys gave up trying to stay out of the water and just waded through in their Crocs. A couple more times across and Riley and I gave up too. Her Converse and my running shoes were pretty wet anyway. I continued to scan the west bank for a place where the slope was moderate enough for us to climb out. Before I found anything the trail disappeared all together and there was nothing but trees and brush on both sides of the creek. Good thing we'd already resigned ourselves to wet feet, because there was nowhere to be but in the water.

But through all of this, the kids were having the best time! Fortunately the water was warm, clear, and not running very fast. Even when Tyson lost his balance, went down on his knees, and got his shorts wet past the inseam, he was still grinning. We finally found a spot where the bank of the creek was close enough to the ground above that I could lift the kids up and then scramble up myself. We walked back to the pond in our squishy shoes, gathered our stroller and unused bread, and headed back to the car. I had left the camera in the stroller, so we did snap some pictures on the way out.

The experience was good practice for our upcoming Adventure Vacation.