A walk in the woods

The road home

If you haven't figured out yet, we like doing things outdoors. This is my husbands influence, mixed with a little of *me*. They get it set up and I tend to go along for the ride, although if left up to me, I am not too sure what we would do. You see, Jonathan is VERY active. He does not like doing 'nothing' and needs to be really busy all the time. This is apparent in all he does. He is never content just serving in one area to the Lord, he always wants to be completely swamped with things to do and accomplish, and only then is he at his best. This is the same at home. His days off, we need to be DOING something. He does his best with deadlines pressing, 3 or 4 jobs to complete TODAY... if you know anyone like that, then you understand. To me it is very foreign. I just like to 'be', I love serving the Lord, but give me too much and I balk. I really get stressed if I don't feel I have enough time to do, and plan and tweak...Oh, sorry for the ramble... lets get back on track. Jon , while being a 'do-er' has never really been a 'woodsy' sort. He loved sports, football, basketball, baseball, tennis, jogging,... you see? Lol, he has told me his idea of being in the woods growing up meant running as fast as he could, dodging trees just to see if he could. I on the other hand could spend hours just wandering quietly through the forest, down the creek, up the hill, sit and listen to the frogs, the birds...I often spent time doing this when my family took vacations in NC growing up. In FL, I spent time in ravines, and wandering around ponds, and up and down the beach, quietly fishing.... Are you getting the idea? Anyways, I guess I rubbed off on Jon a little, and now we do take the kids to the woods quite a bit, we move a little faster than I would normally go, which the boys seem to appreciate, and instead of watching the creek, we swing over it, and even Shelby loves that, all the while, the kids are listening, and watching for critters, and looking for tracks... so, they get the best of both of us. Yesterday after lunch we went to the creek behind our house. We rent a house that sits on about 60 acres. There is a horse farm behind us, and the landlord allows us free reign in their woods. Its about a 10 minute walk to our wading spot, and last year the water was about 2 feet higher. I took pictures yesterday, and there is NO wading to be found . We are in a drought, and it has really affected this little creek. We still went swinging over and back, and I was reminded of why I do not like doing that, it is a lot of fun until you try to get off the swing at the top of the hill, and the silly thing drags you back down and since you can't reach the ground you just hang on until its safe, and then you fall. No harm done, just scrapes and bruises, but it will be long time before my kids can con me into getting back on!!!All in all it was great fun. We came back, fixed dinner and headed off to Wednesday night services. Here are some pics

Justin's WAY up there

Jarens swinging back

Brave girl

Jon loves it too

Ready or not...

Justin digging for turtles

This used to be a sandy beach with water up to your waist, now its only a few inches deep, so sad

Oh, I dont know if you can see him, in every picture.but the dog thought it was his job to chase the rope that hung from the swing, so he was pretty exhausted!