Nature Boys

So, I'm reading The Last Child in the Woods, and its really making me want to bring the boys outside. Its a very interesting read, but its not his compelling argument that is making me want to bring them out. Its just that so many of his stories remind me of fun things I did outside as a kid. And I miss it. And I want my boys to have fun and adventures outside, even though they're probably too little to remember right now.

For some reason, I have been really wanting to find a nice river and just sit by it and let the boys explore. So Friday I tried to find one. The DCR website said that Mt. Wachusett State Reservation has streams, so I decided to bring them there. We found no streams, but it was fun anyway (until Taye ran off on me, but that is a whole other story.)

This was our first stop, a small (I think, man made) pond at the top of the mountain.



Then we headed all the way up to the summit, but there wasn't a whole lot to see.



There was a lot of big machinery that was fenced off, I believe it was a part of the ski resort's equipment. It was actually quite ugly. So we headed off down a little path to explore. Taye was like a little mountain goat skipping down the rocky path. I was really impressed that he climbed down this part all by himself:



Until he went down here:



This path went on and on, I finally had to convince Taye to take a break and play in the trees for a while (all I could think of was how far we had to climb back up, lol).



They played, and then we headed back up. We went to the parking lot, where the runaway incident occured, which was my sign that it was time to go home.

On Saturday we were looking for something to do, and Luis remembered hearing about some waterfalls in Athol. So we found them online, got directions, and headed out. Of course, we got lost - the directions were terrible. We finally asked a lady and she pointed us in the right direction. The falls were really cool. Taye didn't want to come down the path with us at first. He had been sleeping in the car, and I think he just needed an adjustment period. Luis carried him, which he was happy with, and after a few minutes he was ready to get down and explore. It was a short visit, but a nice one.



While we're on the subject of nature - Taye is really interested in ants lately. A few days ago we were on the porch when he spotted one. He poked it and it ran away, which he found very funny, so he followed it and when it stopped, he poked it again. This went on until the ant got away under the screen on the porch. The next day Luis told me he was on the porch with the boys when Taye saw another ant. Apparently he poked that one a little too hard, because it got squished and started writhing - to which Taye pointed and said excitedly, "look, she's dancing!"