First Time Pain

My youngest made my day Friday afternoon when she asked if I would take her hiking on Saturday morning.  OF COURSE I will!

On Saturday we loaded up a picnic and headed over to the South Carolina Botanical Gardens in Clemson.  We ate our lunch at a table located at the base of several pine trees.  

After I had eaten, I picked up a pine cone and showed it to Brenna.  It seems funny to me, but I don't think she had ever really handled a pine cone.  We don't have many pine trees around the neighborhood.  I held it toward her to show her and she reached out to take it from me.  As fast as she grabbed the cone from my hand, she dropped it.  The small spines on the outside caught her off guard.  The expression on her face was unforgettable as she learned something about pine cones.  I gently picked it off of the table and asked her to hold it.

Of course, she had no interest in touching it again.  I showed her how to gently hold it and convinced her to hold her hand out.  I set it in her hand so that she could take a closer look.  After a few seconds of examination she turned her hand over and sent the pine cone to the ground.  Teaching her something about nature was one of my favorite parts of the day.  Hopefully the next lesson won't bite her like that one did.