November Hike

We woke up to a beautiful day this past Sunday, so we decided to get out and enjoy it. It being winter here in Montana, there is no telling when we'll see another sunny and relatively warm day, so you gotta take advantage of it.

So we headed over to a fishing access near town called Erskine. It's a flat area next to the river, with tree and fields of natural grass. 

I couldn't resist bringing my camera and capturing the beauty and silliness that surrounded me.

Of course, taking our whole little family for a walk wasn't without it's trials and bumps. We joke that things like this are "forced family fun" because honestly, does every member of a family ever really want to do something? 

So, we had to deal with some whining and complaining at times throughout the "hike". 

It's hard to believe these cute little girls would whine, isn't it?

Erik has a tendency to whine and tease back at the girls--it's his way of trying to convince them that what we were doing was fun. I think his ideal of a family walk like that would be all of us enjoying every moment and no one complaining. But, that just doesn't happen with kids, and I had to remind him that he probably had his fair share of whining as a kid on "forced family fun" outings.

We made the most of it our walk, though, despite the occasional whines.

And everyone put up with me and my camera pretty well, too.

I found a cool tree stump right in the path at one point and forced us to have an impromptu family portrait session.

Hmm, this could be a great family Christmas card photo!

I went a little crazy with the picture taking.

Look at that exhibit of patience!

My family is so stinkin' cute.

We encountered a really cool sight on our walk. A tree that had been obviously felled by a beaver and

another one that he'd been working on.

It was really cool how an animal could make a large tree like that fall over! There was shavings on the ground all around the tree, and it had been chipped pretty evenly all around the trunk.

Our "destination" was a rocky place by the river where the girls could throw rocks in.

The daddy threw some rocks too.

It was such a beautiful day, I'm so glad we did the whole "forced family fun" thing to go spend some time outdoors in God's wonderful creation. It was well worth every whine and grumble!

Did your family do anything fun or forced fun over the Thanksgiving weekend? How do you deal with whiny kids on such outings that should be fun?