I know we’ve already posted our recipe reviews for today but I just had to come back and post once more because I had an adventure.

 Today my husband and I decided to go for a walk in the woods. There’s this lovely park a very short drive from our place that has some gorgeous trails. Before we went though, we stopped to buy these shoes I’ve been thinking about getting for a while (little black Sketchers from Penningtons). I put them on right away for the walk, complete with new socks too.

Having these new shoes actually gave me more motivation to push myself on this walk today as well. Like I’ve said before, I’m a big girl and I’m really out of shape. A twenty minute walk at a moderate pace is usually enough for me to be hoofin’ and poofin’ when I’m done and I’ve never really been motivated to push past that before. So, today I really pushed myself to go faster and steadier and longer than in the past.

We had been walking the trail now for about twenty five minutes, going up and down small hills the whole time and I figured this was a good half way point and an acceptable time to start heading back to our car. But the more we walked the path that we thought was the way back, the farther we seemed to be getting from the starting point. This was when we decided to cut through the woods and go off trail.

Now, I need to pause here to give you lovely readers a piece of, what I think, is a very valuable piece of advice. NEVER GO OFF TRAIL! For those of you who are the outdoor type and often go hiking in the woods, this may seem silly to you, but for my husband and myself, whose idea of roughing it is going anywhere without our memory foam pillows, this was a very valuable lesson.

Whereas the trails were well maintained and dry, the woods were mucky and filled with roots. I stepped into a particular piece of muck and lost both of my brand new shoes. We had to actually dig them out while I was standing there in my sopping wet socks. When we got them back I didn’t want to put them back on because I didn’t want to muddy up the still relatively clean insides but my hubby refused to let me go on bare foot. So, I put them back on and slogged through more muck just to lose them again. Another round of digging and five more minutes slogging and we finally found our way back to the trail. We stopped near the end at a shallow little stream and tried to wash the majority of the mud and slime off. I was covered in gunk from my feet to my knees and splattered up my arms and legs. The water was freezing too. Oh, and did I mention that this is my fourth anniversary? How romantic!

We made it home in one piece in the end, muddy and gross; showers the first thing on our mind. Despite getting super dirty (and not in the fourth anniversary way) we did really enjoy the walk. We plan to go back at least once a week until the weather gets too bad. For now though, I am happy to report that I weighed in this evening and am down 6lbs. from my original weight.