One of the downsides to being a foster family is there are restrictions to when & where you can travel with your placements. As a result, we’ve started putting in extra effort to explore our local areas, especially the outdoorsy ones… and the ones with little to no cost.
This past week we rented a cabin at a State Park near where we live, to enjoy a short vacation, while trying out traveling with our bonus kids. In the past, overnight travel has not always been easy for them, so it gave us all a trial run! They actually surpassed my expectation, with the major issue usually just being one or all needed to be fed!
My husband, Sam, recently said he thinks we need a sign up in our home that says “Have the kids been fed in the last hour?” It generally seems to be the starting point for attitudes to snowball, and so we promised ridiculous amounts of snacks would be on our list for the next time!
Our Karth Trek crew exploring Sand Lake, in Chain O’ Lakes State Park, Albion IN
One thing that surprised us all was how quickly our kids took to canoeing on the lake. I had originally thought it might be a fun activity for our oldest, to break from our usual outdoor pursuit of hiking, but I hadn’t thought the little kids would demand to all go & beg to even go back! So after lunch (see, feeding them helps!) we rented a second round of boats & all went back out on the lake!
Canoeing with the kids was surprisingly calm, once we got them out in the boats.
They’ve already asked to go back and pursue the canoe scavenger hunt, where you paddle to all the various lakes on the property in a day. I think they would have insisted we do it that day, but we didn’t have enough packed to canoe around the entire park! All in all, I just love the sense of adventure they have for trying new things! It took me til the second trip to even decide to get on a boat!
Part of the 3 mile loop we did through the woods one evening.
Of course, we did go hiking as well, with a total of almost seven miles racked up in a couple days. Gotta wear them down somehow!
I think the only downside of the trip is they keep asking to go back… like tomorrow! So we will have to keep working on their expectations too!
But overall, a successful trial run, we have lists of things to change for the next trip (like not forgetting the ImmuPro supplement to help encourage sleep at night) and we will look forward to the next journey out into the wood, whether it’s a short hike or a week long trip.
What plans do you have for family time this summer? I’d love to hear if you are exploring near or far! In the meantime, stay vibrant & well! ~Naomi
PS- Last week I sent out the link for registration for our July challenge… yet it had a glitch! It’s been fixed now, so if you’d still like to join us: Sign up here!
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