Adventures

Summer is all about adventure right? Well this family's adventures have consisted of watching TV and playing video games and I have had enough. That's so not how we roll. So yesterday, I loaded up the tribe of children and the Hulk went arollin'. Our plan was to visit a nature preserve about 45 minutes away.

I got lost. Even WITH a GPS, I got lost. I'm so not a country girl. Give me a place to go in the Windy City and I'm golden. Give me an address in the middle of nowhere and wham...I end up driving an extra hour.

Don't judge me.

Anyway, after parking in a gas station lot and calling my husband for reinforcements and directions, not to mention sending the oldest in for donuts, we got back on the road.

And guess what? The park was 2 minutes from where I pulled over. Yup. I'm awesome

Despite the, um, unique start to our trip, we had an excellent time hiking the trails and just being together in the great outdoors.

(ahem, if you happen to go hiking and find the blue sippy cup pictured above, please feel free to return it. This is the last known location and we now only own 1 pink sippy cup, which doesn't go well with the whole "manly" theme our house is going for)

The thing about hiking with boys is they never want to stay on the trail. I stopped saying "watch out for poison ivy" after about 57.3 times. And a boy or two might have fallen in a small stream. But that's OK. It was kind of hot anyway.

My little artists brought their paints and canvas to capture some of the scenery. They turned out pretty good!
Noah is the bestest big brother around and I know one little chocolate chip who has him wrapped around her little finger. Not sure she walked a single trail.
Oh wait. Apparently she did. Right next to Noah.

See the red blur way off in the distance? That's Little E and his shadow running ahead. One of us had a hard time keeping up. Feel free to guess.

The day ended well with me actually finding the interstate with no problem and actually making it home in a normal amount of time, our favorite fast food restaurant getting the order right and no one getting sunburned.

It's the little things, really.