Special Exp. / Wordless Weds: Walking Home

One thing I remember looking forward to doing, upon our move up here, was being able to walk our children to and from the local K-1 school. It's only about 4 blocks away, and the walk seemed like it would be so sweet.

Little did I know the frustration I'd have to wait through. The years of kids in preschoool (so long while it lasted, so short looking backward). The heartache of finding new daycare every 6 months. Having to rush some of the dropoffs due to conference calls with the east coast for work from the home office. The bitterness of not being able to walk my daughter as much as I wanted to because too often I had to be at home, waiting with her brother for the bus to show up. The focus on having to drive everyone for one whole school year because the bus lost James his first afternoon for over an hour and I wouldn't trust them with him again. Encouraging my daughter to make the walk with me and not let her whine about it being too far.

Now at last I am enjoying that walk with James. It's even sweeter because for a while I did not know if he'd be able to attend this school, let alone be in a regular class. James is a morning guy, loves meeting new people, and adores Kindergarten. He can hardly wait to get to school in the morning, and chatters about the day to come.

Walking home is an adventure ...

Because we get to walk through a bigger playground where he actually gets to play during the school day!

And who knows what we will see on our way home? We always love to take the "short cut" through this country corner:

One Friday the F-18 was buzzing us all the way from school to home in preparation for the local Air Show ...

And already the trees are changing colour, and dropping leaves for us to kick and crunch:

So the world is a bigger and more exciting place for James right now, and his excitement matches mine on our walks home together.

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and ... Wordless Wednesday