Today, making good on a long-ago promise to my oldest daughter, I drove a carload of fourth and fifth graders on a field trip to a regional park for a field trip. The kids are studying geology, so we found ourselves split into two groups of fifteen kids and three parents, each with a Nature Educator to school us on the natural world, as found in the park.

Still in the parking lot, we circled up and introduced ourselves by name, and then we were supposed to say what we like to do outside. When the very nice, Nordic-named Nature Educator got to me, I stammered out my name and declared that "I like to hike!" This is blatantly false. I do not like hiking, at least not since I have children who like to whine-n-walk. But I don't know, that fit, tanned woman in sensible hiking boots pinned me with her icy blue stare and I blurted "I like to hike!"

"Good," she said. "Good, because we're going to be doing a lot of hiking today!"

Whoopie.

Look, when I signed up for this gig, I thought we were going to have a little visit to some sort of cabin with a few stuffed birds and maybe some rocks. Maybe have a little story or look at photos. I didn't know about the hiking. And within two seconds of getting there, I realized maybe a sweater set was not the right kind of layers, but there it was. I blurted "I'm Jenny, er, Mrs. Lauck, and I like to hike!"

Our fearless educator took off up the trail with the kids fanning out behind. The trail headed straight up the side of a hill, and I climbed alongside my fellow accompanying mother, who had blurted "I like to swim!" which got a stern nod of approval from our Nature Goddess during our earlier circle time.

By the first pit stop, I was panting. It was u.g.l.y. and I didn't have no alibi. Once again, we gathered the kids into a circle and watched as Nature Lady yanked prop after prop after prop out of her backpack. She had diagrams and models of the earth and samples of rocks and baking powder and vinegar to make a volcano (on the fly, even) and all sorts of stuff. Which was cool, and all, but we stayed in that spot learning and passing around stuff for a good 30 minutes.

Once we got back underway, the kids were tasked to find examples of the three different types of rocks. We learned the names but I was busy gossiping about the PTA volunteer activities and didn't really follow the whole lecture. All I know is the kids spent the next little bit scouring the ground for bits of obsidian and other special rocks, and my pockets slowly filled with stones.

Because not only do I like hiking? I like doing it with pockets full of rocks.

We didn't actually hike far, maybe 3/4 of a mile, stopping frequently for circles and teaching moments. I rubbed it in to the other mom with our group that I had a kid in my car who had to be back early - possibly cutting our "fun" short. Neeeeeeener.

After a quick lunch eaten while sitting on loose gravel, we herded the kids back into cars and headed back to school. It was good to be out in the fresh air and it meant the world to my daughter to have me there.