Going On A Nature Hike

On October 6th Jack and Sam and I were lucky enough to get to go on a nature "hike" in the local marsh!  I wasn't sure if Jack would be impressed, bored, or completely distracted by being a train, but I didn't want to miss the opportunity!  And I was so glad that we went!  Jack had a great time- he was really interested in looking for bugs and plants and frogs (but mostly the bugs), and he did a great job with following the leader!  In fact, he stayed by her practically the entire time!  Saying "Hey, lady look over here! What is this?" and turning back over his shoulder to tell me "Mom, don't worry, I'm following the leader!"  The leader herself was great with Jack, although she was a little overzealous with the information she expected the kids to stand there and listen to; Jack, at 3 1/2 was the oldest kid there, and he pretty much was the only one paying any attention to her.  She was really nice, though, and before we left Jack made sure to thank her very politely!

One cute thing... when we got home we picked all the seed pods that had hitched a ride on us off of our clothing, and we counted.  Jack had 32 and I had 12, but Sam, who had been strapped to me the whole time (and asleep for most of it), didn't have any!  Jack was such a great big brother, though, and when I told him that there were no pods to pick off of Sam he said "It's okay Sammy Wammy- you can have some of mine!" and proceeded to take his seed pods and stick them on his brother!  Such a good sharer!  Ha ha ha!

Some photos from our day (oh, and speaking of seed pods... see the little boy with the blond curly hair?  He was wearing a fuzzy wool sweater and fleece pants and was absolutely covered in seed pods by the end of the hike! I wonder how many he would have had!)...

And Jack wanted me to take a picture of him with his name tag, and also his name tag itself... he was very proud of it!