At the park

Today started out in a rather dragging manner. We woke up, dragged ourselves downstairs, ate breakfast, then realized it was barely past eight. Hmm. Calvin had the piano practiced and several theory worksheets filled in before Jon even left for work, then spent the next hour on map worksheets. He's really into maps right now. We read about Antarctica together, we played with the Legos, we filled in some Antarctica worksheets, and still it wasn't quite noon. And the day was turning out to be beautiful in spite of forecasted rain. So we packed our lunch, a few activities, and Calvin's bike, and headed to the county park.

There is a three mile trail at the park that I like to run. It has no real hills to speak of and much of it is in the shade, plus it's always full of other runners so I feel in good company, but this was the first time I tried running it with Calvin. As his biking confidence has grown so has his speed and I thought we might enjoy the trail together. I still run faster than he does, and it's hard to say whether all the running ahead and doubling back made up for the walking alongside (albeit quickly) or hiding behind upcoming trees, waiting to jump out with a "boo!", but the activity was fun for both of us.

During lunch, which we enjoyed after our trek, we watched a class of university students gather creatures from the river and study them with their TA before returning them to the water. We both loved that example of outdoor learning but I didn't want them to think I was any weirder than I already look so I left the camera in its bag. Sitting on the side taking photographs of young men and women in waders while I fed my kid carrot sticks and a turkey sandwich just didn't seem right. We enjoyed a calming view while doing some math practice sheets, more map sheets, and imagining shapes in the cloud filled sky. And we found Mr. Fuzzy on the way back to the car and I didn't have the same compunction about taking his picture.