My brother has been in town this week, and each morning, at 6:30, he grabs our dad, and they go for a 4-5 mile walk. Yesterday morning, he said they hiked the trail down to the waterfall and back. I have driven the UTV on the trail that way many times, but I’ve never walked it.

As we were sitting at breakfast, he suggested I throw Little Man in his stroller and walk him down there. There is another trail that way where I could just let him run around, and then we can walk back with him in the stroller. To be honest, I cringed at the thought of it. I don’t mind walking; in fact, I love walking. But, the thought of walking 4 miles pushing Little Man in his stroller up and down hills, on a gravel trail had me freaking out. I don’t want to do that. My son is heavy, and his stroller is heavy, too. I hate pushing it up the hills when we walk the streets around here; I don’t want to do that on the trail on a hill with a steeper incline!

But then, I started thinking about what type of example I’m setting for Little Man. Squatch is not active with him at all; he just started getting down on the ground to play with him. During the day, I’m up, down, running around with Little Man. We do go for walks around the yard, but that’s about it. I let him go in front of me, exploring everything, and only step up when he’s going up or down a steeper part of the yard, to be there in case he needs a helping hand. It’s not like I don’t have the time; I’m at home with him ALL DAY, and we really don’t go out anywhere, other than the ride to the dump.

So, here I am, holding myself accountable to myself, Little Man, and the rest of you. We are going to start going for daily walks. After breakfast each morning, we will head out. They will just be short walks to start out, but they will get longer as we go out more often. Every Friday, I will give an update on how the walks are going, and share a picture or two of what we see.