I’ve been feeling so run down lately, to the point where I began to wonder if something was wrong with me. I know that there are reasons for this, and in part, a severe lack of sleep running up to all the conference insanity was part of it. Plus, not having the typical recovery time, or really much recovery time at all, after the fact.

On Saturday, I slept. I woke up at about the usual time. I napped, longer than usual. Mr. Ink is a night owl, and I am an early bird, but on Saturday nights I TRY to stay up a bit later than usual so that we can enjoy some shows together. On Saturday night it wasn’t even 9:30 before I was crawling in bed unable to keep my eyes open, even with that nap. I got something like 9.5 hours of sleep, and got up Sunday morning ACTUALLY feeling refreshed. I mean, I didn’t even once feel like I needed a nap, I didn’t feel tired and grumpy, it was LOVELY to feel so alive and with it and GOOD!

We spent the day at a state park, Mr. Ink, Miss Butterfly, and one of her friends. We did some hiking.

Miss Butterfly really wanted to do more hiking, or really probably more playing in the creek. She really enjoyed herself.

Instead of walking all the trails, we did a bunch of exploring IN the creek, which means that there were lots of moments where we were crossing the water in rocks or downed logs. I found it hilarious that the kids were SO worried about my ability to cross. “Are you ok MOM?  Are you OK!?!” And really, I WOULD HAVE BEEN if it wasn’t for the fact that I had both hands absolutely FULL of everyone else’s stuff! Know what I mean? The mother’s curse. Everyone else is happily balancing across logs and worried I cannot hack it, while I am balancing across logs with both hands full and worried I am going to drop someone’s phone or camera into the water. NEXT TIME?! I’ll bring a bag.

Those of you who have followed the blog for awhile know that Mr. Ink has been waging war against the root systems of invasive mulberries for a year and a half now. While wandering around the creek bed, we found a recently toppled mulberry with their distinctive orange root system. And then it attacked!

We giggled over this photo for a great deal of time, after all, we get a little punchy when discussing those invasive root systems.

We ended our time there with a cook out and then roasting marshmallows. Miss Butterfly’s friend is a girlscout so we had the supremely easy s’mores modification of putting a roasted marshmallow between two thanks a lot cookies.

We had such a nice time, and absolutely made all the more special by the girls telling me that they were having such a GREAT time, and Mr. Ink commenting on how it was so nice to see kids playing with no phones in sight. I suspect both of those girls would have loved to hike even longer, and quite frankly? So would I. Next time!