Parks and Recreation...

is a stupid t.v. show that is sandwiched between two of the best shows currently on t.v. ("Community" and "The Office").

However, I love parks and I love recreation.  And I really love that Andy is now old enough that we can do some roaming about different parks in the area.  Usually, we stick with more low-key park opportunities.  One park that is very near to my house has a paved track and lots of open space for running, throwing a ball, etc.  It also boasts a gym that is made for the smallest of tykes.  In general, it's a great place for taking Andy, particularly when I don't feel like driving more than 8 minutes to get somewhere.  However, there are other places, all of which require I double my driving time (at least), that are more my idea of a park.  They have trails...and lakes...and trees galore.  They are less developed and more remote than the most immediately located parks.  And I love them.  My favorite two (so far, though I've only been to each a handful of times) are North Park (which actually has a combo of open space and trails) and Raccoon Creek State Park (which is safest in terms of traffic).  Today, Andy and I took an "adventure" to the latter, and it was marvelous.

I did a little bit of research to learn which trails would be most suitable for our trek (i.e. I found the ones marked 'easy'), and then promptly forgot all of it by the time we finally pulled onto park grounds.  So, I decided to regroup and just pull into the first spot that said it was for trail-related parking.  It turns out that the trail I selected began with a hill.  And it wasn't a low grade hill.  It was a hilly hill.  Andy was not to be dissuaded, however, once he was out of his car seat.  He had a blast on his way up.  He picked up at least 7 different sticks and elected to bang them together, or on surrounding trees.  He would walk up a few yards, then start bounding back down the hill, crying "wheeeee" the whole way.  In the end, we didn't actually complete much of the trail, but the area that we did manage to cover, we probably covered at least 3 times.

And then...I showed Andy the creek that was lurking just out of sight (but within earshot) of our path.  And he immediately ran into the water which, while very shallow, still soaked his feet.  And, then, he obviously thought the most appropriate next step to take was to sit in the water.  And to throw rocks.  And to splash and splash.  And to pick up hand fulls of mud and rub them in his hair.  By this point, I was grateful for my foresight, in that I had managed to pack an entire spare outfit, but was also crossing off of my list the other errands I'd hoped to have completed once our little adventure was completed.  This called for a bath, and pronto.

We loaded up the car and began to head out, when I saw the sign for the wildflower preserve, and I thought it might be nice to look at all of the flowers.  I pulled in, and felt even greater delight when I saw what appeared to be a paved pathway.  We parked, I got the stroller out (I didn't want Andy to run in the flowers or otherwise utilize his powers for destruction), and we set off...only to discover that the paved path went to a building, and that all of the other trails were natural.  Nevertheless, we had gone this far, so I elected to push the stroller on a trail for a bit, somehow deciding that it wouldn't be too bad.  And then there were tree roots. Lots and lots of tree roots.  I went through a period of trying to maneuver around the roots, but that didn't work so well.  And then I went through a phase of trying to simply lift the front wheels of the stroller over the top of each root.  That only kind of worked.  Then, I finally was so fed up that I just picked up the entire stroller and carried it around until we were in a more root-free area.  (Meanwhile, Andy thoroughly enjoyed his riding, yelling "bumps!" and giggling ferociously the entire time).  Fifteen or twenty minutes in, I had to concede to nature--it had beaten my stroller and, therefore, me.  We bumbled our way back to the car, got loaded up, and headed home.

It was a lovely day.  If I'd really done a great job of planning, I'd have invited a few friends along, and we could've enjoyed some time at the lake, and a nice picnic.  And, I'd have brought something--anything--other than that stupid stroller.  Oh well--maybe next time!!