We took Piper hiking in the Shenandoah Valley yesterday. It was her first hike. She wasn’t that excited. “So, you just go walk around in the woods? Boring.” She complained in the car most of the drive up the mountain. I let her wear her tutu and bring her favorite stuffed animal. These are essential components for forest exploration.

Piper’s dad gave a brief lecture on poison ivy. This led to her favorite new game called “Is this poison ivy?” in which she touched every leaf in the woods and asked…you guessed it: “Is this poison ivy?”  Half of the hike went like this.

“Is this poison ivy?”

“No. Put that down.”

“How about this? Poison ivy?”

“I hope not, especially since you just rubbed it all over your cheek.”

“Hey. Look at this leaf. Is it poison ivy? Huh?

“Stop!”

Luckily, Sissy pulled Piper close to enjoy the view.

Then they explored flora and fauna together by poking unknown things with sticks.

Piper took a brief tumble on the steep part of the trail. I cleaned up her wounds the best I could and she said, “Mommy, you make everything better.”

At the end of our hike, Piper declared it a moderate success. She agreed to do it again anyway. “I liked the hiking part,” she said, as we emerged from the woods, “just not the falling down part.”