aaaahhhh... to be young again.

So the beginners hike that I plowed thru the other day, I decided was a great hike to take my mom to. She wanted to exercise and I wanted to be outdoors. I think the compromise worked our well. After work I drove to her house and was all psyched to get in a good workout. As soon as I walk in the door and hug hello, I hear my name being shrieked followed by bubbles of giggles. Then I see them bounding in the room wearing identical, apropo, "I'm Annoying" t-shirts from what ever kids cartoon is popular right now. My mood drops as I start to realize, this is the day my mom is babysitting the twins. Almost as if she can read my face, my mom goes, "its alright, the twins are going with us and they can keep up." Before I can even get a BUT out, she assures me these six year old balls of energy, who are so excited to be going hiking by the way, can keep up with us. I sigh and resign myself to the fact that I probably won't get in the work out I had wanted. My mom quickly tries to dispel my disappointment by thrusting some sort of "healthy" shake in my hand and telling me to hurry up and drink it before we leave for our walk. "Its a hike", I remind her as I'm staring at this congealed pink frothy drink in my hand. Now my mom is known to NOT tell you what your eating for fear that you WONT eat it. With good reason by the way. I'm on to her tricks by now, so I ask her whats in it. She smiles and tells me to try it first. Alarms go off in my head and I'm recalling an earlier conversation we had last week about a smoothie concoction she "invented" with eggs, milk, fruit and what ever left over vegetable she has in her crisper. I know if I don't want to hurt her feelings, I should suck this down now and ask questions later. After slurping down this peach flavored smoothie about 3/4's of the way down, I finally have enough nerve to ask whats in it again. She tells me she blended up milk, a couple of peaches from her garden, an egg white (belch), a carrot, and a zucchini. I feel my stomach gurgle and tell her I can't finish the rest b/c honestly, (and I was being honest) I don't like hiking on a full stomach. We pile in the car after I make sure everyone has adequate water and we get to the trail. I opt for the 3 mile loop instead of the 5 mile loop b/c we have the twins. My mom says to just hike like I would normally hike and they will keep up. I groan but realize she has given me the green light to go and hike my own hike. So I do and darn it if those twins didn't keep up! Even while we were going up hill. They were running along, giggling like they had all the energy in the world. Man, to be six and full of energy again. My mom, whose usually a talker, was barely able to keep up and was unusually quiet. All I could hear from her was alot of huffing and puffing while she was trying to catch her breath. So overall, I was really impressed with these little six year olds and my Fifty-eight year old mom. I got in my hike the way I wanted and everyone had a great time. When I left the house, the twins asked me, "When are we going hiking again!!!" I think I converted another two. :)