Before my kids were born, I hiked every Sunday with DH. I had to stop when I was pregnant with Daughter but within weeks of her birth, we were back on the trail again. When she was 3 months old, as we crossed a creek, we “baptized” her with some creek water. After 6 months, she was too fussy to let us take her along.
We started hikes back up when Son was old enough to hike a little. But Daughter was too unpredictable: she would stray too close to the edge of the trail when there was a drop off, she wouldn’t listen when we would call her back. It was too scary to go on hikes so we postponed them a few years.
I really missed hiking. One year for Mother’s day, DH dropped me at the bottom of a trail and I hiked to the top where he and my kids met me. It was a great day, I just didn’t spend it with my kids.
They became scouts and got better at the hiking thing. They were still slow and I would slow down and wait for them to catch up. They got older and became experienced scouts, going on long hikes without me.
Today, I was the one who was slow. The kids are strong teens and they slowed down for me. Age happens. It was a wonderful hike, the perfect gift.
