wild things

Yesterday, we took the boys down to a local park. It has a great nature center with all sorts of animals to look at and things to explore. It also has a number of walking trails. After spending some time inside looking at all of the animals, we decided to take them for a walk up one of the trails.
As soon as we got outside and started walking, Jem started yelling. Not in a bad way. More like in a I'm-so-excited-I-can't-control-the-volume-of-my-voice kind of way. Everything he saw was fascinating and he decided that we needed to know about it. And it didn't seem to matter that we were walking next to him, he still needed to shout. He shouted to us about the wooden bridge. He shouted about the markers on the trees that let you know you were still on the path. He shouted at us to hurry up.
The trail crossed over the creek and then started ascending one of the hills. Jem jogged up the hill, shouting to me the entire time while Sam walked with Tru. We reached a halfway point on the hill and found a bench. Jem had already continued on and I began to follow him when I heard Tru say, "Mommy, come to me." I turned around and saw him closing in on the bench walking like a little old man or just a really tired three-year old. "I so tired Mommy." I told him to go ahead and rest on the bench. Meanwhile Jem was yelling down to me to hurry up and come join him.
It was a pretty comical morning. When I think of walking in the woods, I think of peace. I think of listening to the sounds of the birds, the twig snap that signals a deer is nearby, the chitter of squirrels. This was not a quiet, peaceful walk in the woods. If there was any wildlife it cleared out quickly. Dragons will do that. But it was a good reminder of how much little boys need to be out in nature. And a reminder that there was a time when I used to run everywhere and notice everything and that sometimes being a grown-up is overrated.