outdoor winter adventures

Here in the Willamette Valley, some often complain of our eight months of endless rain and gray skies.  I usually bundle up inside and watch the weather from the kitchen.  Reflecting on my parenting and wanting my children to love the great outdoors, I feel an inner pressure to get them out there into it all.  My Waldorf friends and my environmental classes are finally rubbing off on me.  Or it could be our passion for Little House books.  We are now reading The Long Winter and Hannah is eagerly awaiting our first big blizzard of the year.  (She'll have to keep waiting.)  We know kids are healthier outdoors and the weather here has been remarkably mild.  It's just a matter of bundling up and getting our nature deficient kids out there.  I'd like to get outside for a daily walk, perhaps one that includes lunch or a park.  We usually just head out for riding bikes and investigating the bugs and leaves and mud.  Sometimes we are able to stop at a nearby park or head to the beach.  Regardless of the weather, we hear the great outdoors calling to us.  Sometime soon we'll head out the door for another adventure.  But why wait?  Let's go now!

little Liam discovers leaves and a mud puddle after a windstorm

Hannah following her brother's example and plunging into the mud puddle

thinking about climbing to the top

running past Liam's decorated cherry tree

scaling logs on the Oregon beach

trying to bury the little Liam, but his foot is resisting

I love how these two love each other.

chasing his missing shoe out of a great pit

"It's not a snow angel, Papa.  It's a sand angel."

Does that say "Bow down to Washington?"  No, it says Bath Night.