boys on an adventure

One thing I've learned about raising boys is how much they love adventure.  To conquer.  To rescue.  To win!  And these adventures seem to creep into our daily lives.  Chris takes them on "special missions" to buy eggs.  We go "treasure hunting" at rummage sales.

So in the spirit of adventure, I decided to take them on an exploration hike this week!  (Ok, that sounded way cooler than it actually was.  Really they I was just desperate to get out of the house in hopes that they'd stop fighting with each other for more than 26 seconds.)

And since this Wisconsin girl has just been aching lately for a forest (or the woods.  Heck, I'd even take a thick shelter belt), I decided to take them to the closest thing to a forest this part of South Dakota has to offer ..... the Outdoor Campus.

So we packed up the van and headed out.  And where to my city boys want to play as soon as we get there??  Inside!  GAH!!  And I could hear my mother's voice coming out of my mouth as I said "It's too nice out to play inside!!"  We're going on an adventure ... remember?  So I shooed them outside.  The Outdoor Campus actually has a lot of nice walking paths throughout their property.  Some are through the prairie grasses, but we followed the wooded paths.  Because I really miss trees.

This handsome-pants came along too :)  

city boys

And I would like to take a moment to pat myself on the back and tell you that I actually remembered to bring the bug spray!!  I think the skeeters love the woods just as much as I do and my poor Carter always seems to get bit the worst.  In fact, I was actually excited to try a new bug spray my friend Esther sent me.  She just started selling Radiantly You products and asked if I would try out the bug spray and give her some feedback.  So I sprayed the boys down and I am happy to say that we left the woods bug bite free!  And I love the fact that it wasn't stinky or sticky like regular bug spray.  It actually smelled like a sweet citronella.  Bonus yet that it's made with essential oils and not with "who knows what" chemicals.

Anyway, as we were "exploring" the boys found a toad!  Not gonna lie, I really didn't expect to find anything noteworthy.  (these boys seem to have an attention span of a mosquito)  But I was really glad we did and was I proud of the boys for actually holding it.  

(Note: the bug spray does NOT repel toad pee.  Just sayin'.)

Poor toad.  Holding on for dear life.

We walked as far as a two year old has stamina for (which is not that far) and we headed back to the main building.  The boys played on the different activities set up outside for quite a while and then we headed home.

All in all, I'd say it was a good adventure!