Fullersbury Woods

One of our favorite places to hike is near the Old Graue Mill in Oak Brook. We've taken the short hike from the Mill to the Fullursburg Education Center before, but we've never walked the trails further to the west of the center.

I've recently joined a mother's group, mainly for the activities for children and a chance for the twins to play with other kids. We had a wonderful time at someone's house where a mother read a story, and then the kids did a very short art activity afterwards. Mainly, they liked going to a different house with new toys to play with.

This day, in the middle of November, we met up with four other families for a short hike. Since we were one of the first families to arrive, the kids checked out the nature center for a while.

We had been here one other time, so the kids ran to their favorite areas first. I don't have any pictures of it, but there is a giant treehouse the kids climbed into that was filled with stuffed animals.

Alexa was drawn to the books, of course.

Jared wanted to make animal tracks in the silly-puddy type material.

They also checked out the different fur pellets of various local animals as well as a few animal skulls.

They day was wonderfully sunny. Alexa started to warm up to the other kids, particularly to a boy who was their same age. Jared, however, wanted me to carry him a lot of the time. That is one reason why I still do not take long walks with them. He gets very insecure in new situations and wants to be carried for a while until he feels more comfortable. Even though he is just barely over 30 pounds, it still is hard to carry him for a long time due to my partially prolapsed bladder.

It's kind of strange, but once I offered Jared a cracker, he held onto it like a security blanket (something he had done quite a bit when he was younger), and then he was fine and walked by himself. I think it also helped that we stopped by a pond, and he loves to throw rocks in water.

We haven't been back since that day, but it's a goal of mine to visit again very soon. Actually, I'd love for us to get outside much more this year, every day if we can. I was proud this year that we did some type of park, hike or outside play at least four or five days a week. I notice a huge difference in the kids when they get outside in the fresh air to play.