Return to Adventure

After spending the last couple months passing through doctor-ordered bed rest and self-imposed bed rest and post-partum bed rest, I am itching for adventure with the children, the kind we like to indulge in regularly when I'm at full speed.  I miss seeing their little faces light up with new experiences and hearing firsthand their exclamations of wonder.  I miss answering their funny questions and holding their hands in unfamiliar places.  I miss our routine of hurry scurry to get breakfast dishes cleared and clothes on and teeth brushed and out the door, the stretch of activity that carries us through our picnic lunch, and the contentedly tired return home for naptime.

So, a day spent in the strawberry fields with friends last week felt like a celebration!  

The farm is about 45 minutes from downtown.  We drove with the windows down, the sunroof open, and the music playing.  As I unloaded the stroller and our assortment of gear from the back of the car in the warm sunshine and unbuckled each of my children from their car seats for the day, with the strawberry fields just behind us, I felt like shouting I'm back!  Man, was it a long time coming.

The boys quickly learned to scan the vines for a peek of red, pull back the leaves and choose the very plumpest, brightest berries.  They worked steadily to fill their cartons, until the temptation to eat those freshest of berries began to outweigh the inclination to to put them away, and they adopted strict vine-to-mouth policies.

Aren't they gorgeous?

With our cartons full of strawberries and the children's mouths stained red, we moved to the other side of the farm, where we finished off the day with a picnic, some time on the playground and in the sand pit, and a good bit of excitement at the petting zoo barn.

It was a good day.  A beautiful day.  A solid return to adventure.