Wallowing

So what had happened is we made a commitment that we would hike Cherokee Marsh each season (all four seasons, NOT just the two identified in Wisconsin, construction and winter). On New Year's Day, Thom presented a slide show reviewing our year to his brothers, which tipped Benja off to the fact that we had not accomplished our winter hike. Thom tried marketing it as our, "Annual New Year's Day Hike". The girls were reluctant, as the temperature was 25 degrees, and it felt like 15. Honestly, Lotta and Zibbi are reluctant to hike in ANY weather, so this was actually the anticipated response. However, usually once we get them to the hike, they rally and have a fine time running through the trails, looking for animals, admiring trees, etc. I knew we were not on that trajectory when the complaining did not cease when we emerged from our van. And almost immediately, Zibbi fell down and her glove filled with snow. Not an auspicious start to the whole event. She tried to dump out the snow and put them back on. Then, Zibbi tried carrying the gloves while putting her cold hands in her pockets. PLUS we were informed by Lotta that snowpants make walking SO MUCH SLOWER. To add insult to injury, Benja had chosen a different trail this time than our usual, which eventually, after ever so much

complaining, instead of leading us to the marsh, led us instead, to the back side of a housing development. So, we had to retrace all those painful steps. We soldiered on and FINALLY made it to an area overlooking the marsh. Zibbi proceeded to a dock, plopped herself down, and said she just needed some time for wallowing. To which I thought, "Wow! That is a FANTASTIC word to describe what is happening. Well done." (Other current favorite words of Zibbi's are "devastated" and "tortured", also excellent descriptive words, really on brand for this particular time.)  I guess the main point is we can mark off on our "to do" list, hiking Cherokee Marsh during the winter.  We have several months to recover before spring arrives.