30 Minutes in the Life: October

With the warmer weather, we have been exploring the National Parks in Sydney. The family and I pack a picnic, water. the camera plus our walking boots to explore and spend family time together. My husband and I have been planning this for a long time. Since the kids were little, we imagined hiking with the kids and now that our youngest is at an age where she can do long walks, we are exploring each weekend. The kids can always think of reasons why they don't want to come with us, but with some bribery, they always enjoy it. The conversations are wonderful. It is like our guards are down and we talk about things that we don't talk about at home. Some of it is silliness but sometimes I am flawed by what they share. I listen as we walk and I marvel at this family of mine. They are strong both physically as well as emotionally.  These walks are building our strength more than just in our muscles.

This walk in the Blue Mountains was amazing. It was a four hour walk but I am only sharing the first 30 minutes. There was a rather steep descent into the canyon. Our legs were jelly by the time we got to the bottom. All of our muscles were twitching and bouncing. We then walked along the canyon floor where we paused for a break by a creek. Then we walked the steep incline out. I honestly didn't think I would make it. It was really hard work with a lot of huffing and puffing. But there was only one way out ( other than a dramatic helicopter rescue which I honestly thought about)  and that was putting one foot in front of the other. Just like life really. And as the kids complained and wished we had picked an easier walk, I knew they had the resilience to walk on out. My husband cheered everyone on while I just held my daughter's hand and whispered "We can do this". And we did.

And that iced chocolate with cream and ice cream that we bribed them with at the beginning of the walk was a delicious reward for a beautiful day's work. We arrived back home with jelly legs, utterly exhausted and with happy hearts.

Now pop on over to see the 30 minutes that captured Sharleen of Shareen N Struart Photography heart this month.