An Afternoon in the Jemez Mountains

It is hard to be the mother of three boys because there is very little that I have in common with them. I don't play video games or LEGOs. and in my house, they're the top two modes of recreation. Well, besides reading, but it's hard to be together when you're doing something solitary. So much of the time I feel that I can't relate to them. So what do I do? I create opportunities for us to spend some time together and I try to pick things that I think they'll enjoy. This is spring break so we've got time to get out and do things together. Each night this week we've been watching a Star Wars movie together, complete with popcorn. Monday we went bowling, which was fun. Today we rode bikes and scooters to the tennis courts and played doubles (rather poorly, I might add). But what I like to do the most with my boys is to get out and explore places, go camping, and walk on trails. I love to walk in the woods and find such peace when I do. It is how I recharge my batteries. I want to instill this kind of peace and joy that I get when walking on trails into them but they don't seem to want to cooperate half the time.

Yesterday we went exploring in the Jemez Mountains, visiting the Gilman Tunnels, railroad tunnels blown out of the rock (Paleozoic shales) for the purposes of a logging train in the 1920s. The boys seemed pretty impressed with the tunnels and the canyon carved by the Rio Guadalupe. The little river cascaded down the rocks in the very narrow canyon. Beautiful.

Anyway, after the tunnels I thought it would be a good idea to walk a trail that we haven't been on yet. At first, the boys were all for it because that meant that they would be missing TaeKwonDo. But about a half a mile in, the youngest started to complain. And he wouldn't stop. I might have well been taking them on a Death March through the woods. So much for peace and joy on a trail. And it was only about 4 miles. They've walked longer. Maybe it was just because it was later in the day. But one thing that stood out was youngest son's stubbornness. All three of my boys have a stubborn streak. When they don't want to do something, boy, they'll be miserable about it and make sure you know it!

I'm hoping that they might not be so reluctant to walk tomorrow. Yes, I'm going to take them out for a walk again tomorrow. No, I haven't told them yet. But I will. Later. Much later. Maybe after the Star Wars movie we watch tonight.