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Have I mentioned that you have to be flexible when planning adventures with toddlers? Anyone with toddlers knows this, but for some reason it’s still easy to forget it. At least I keep forgetting, so I get constant reminders.

Thursday morning our planned hike got derailed before we even left the house. For the last two weeks or so River has woken up to use the bathroom, and then goes downstairs to play instead of back to bed for more sleep. Since he also thinks he doesn’t need naps, he is a tired little boy who frequently has meltdowns.

When he just sat on the floor and cried rather than put his socks and shoes on, I decided to send him back to bed for a nap and to postpone our hike a few hours. Some sleep would make him a lot less cranky and a lot more agreeable to be around. I have a low tolerance for whining, so it was a necessary delay.

After a nice long nap River was raring to go and even though we got a much later start to our hike than I’d planned, the hike was much more enjoyable without a tired, whiny little boy.

We stopped to marvel at the odd growth pattern of this tree

This particular Thursday was also Sunshine’s monthly history club meeting. Since we got such a late start to our hike, we didn’t have a lot of time for hiking, but we did get to explore a couple short trails in a new-to-us park.

Because I was willing to go with the flow and find a way to make it work, we still were able to go on our hike.  We’re excited to return to this park as the seasons change- it has very different plant life from the trails park that we usually go to.

hike #3 of my 52 hike challenge, 9.12 total miles towards the 365 challenge