Nature walk with the boys {Cicero, NY Photographer, Kim Hill}

Now that the boys are officially on summer break, I've been lining up things for us to do together.  Not necessarily something every single day, but I found that having a planned activity to look forward to is helpful…both for getting their hopes up and also for reminding them to behave, "or else".  LOL 

So this morning we took a drive over to the Beaver Lake Nature Center.  It's a really nice facility – changed and improved a lot since the last time I was there.  The main building has a welcome desk, conference room, bird watching room, hands-on exhibit, gift shop, offices and restrooms.  When we got there, we grabbed the trail map and tried to decide which one to go on.  Little did I know that it would be such an ordeal.  My little guy insisted on doing the lake loop which is 3 miles, while my older one said he wanted to do two shorter trails.  They both stood their ground for a solid half hour while I sat in a rocking chair watching the birds and reading the center's newsletter.  :)  Truthfully, I was hoping they would not pick the 3 mile lake loop simply because I know that despite the little guy's strong ambitions, he has very low endurance and I doubted he would be able to do the full loop.  Luckily, they agreed to do two shorter trails that together were nearly close to 3 miles anyway.  Did I think we would end up doing both trails?  Not in a million years.

Off to the trail we went….the 3 Meadows Loop.  It was actually a nice 1.4 mile walk.  A little bit of hills…just enough to keep it interesting.  There were loads of flowers all along the way – most of which I have no idea on their name.  We did see a large patch of black-eyed susans as well as a long stretch of beautiful purple orchids.  The only wildlife we encountered was one chipmunk, a couple of butterflies and various flying insects. 

About 1/2 way through, the little guy began to break down.  And I became secretly frustrated with trying to get him to just keep moving.  By this time, he had finished his entire thermos of water, peed twice, and was ready to eat lunch.  It was only 10:30 am.  The remainder of the walk I had to remind him about the snack I had packed that was in the car.  I really think he would've been quite content to just sit there on the ground and pout had he not had the motivation of getting that snack. 

After a long two hours of walking, we were finally back to the main building.  Needless to say, we never did get to the second trail.  And, honestly, I didn't think we would.  😉