While my husband has been out of town I've been responsible for two boys, two dogs, two jobs, one house and an inordinate amount of laundry.

Walking two dogs with a stroller is too much for me. We hardly fit on the sidewalk. Hiking on a trail doesn't really work because I never know when Anders (2.5) will hit the wall and "need" to be carried. It could be a couple miles into a walk or it could be a few minutes after we hit the trail. Carrying him and his one-year-old brother is out of the question. I'm tough and all, but two kids is too many to carry.

I've been trying to come up with ways I can get all four boys outside, exercised and having fun. Last weekend I took them to a place I don't normally think of as a recreational/dog walking/kid entertaining place.

A closed campground.

We are lucky to have several campgrounds less than 30 minutes from our house. We hit up a Forest Service campground (Pine Creek Campground) after it had closed for the season. No one was there, so the dogs could run amok and the roads were perfect for pushing a stroller.

Turned out that Finn fell asleep in the truck just before we got there, so I left him in there. Anders and I found plenty to do within sight of the truck.

It wasn't exactly a wilderness experience, but there were trees, snow, shrubs and, most importantly, sticks. (Do all kids LOVE sticks and rocks, or is that a boy thing?).

Anders played in the campfire ring, stirred snow and chased the dogs. The dogs ran around willy nilly without bugging anyone, Finn slept and I could check a couple things off my to-do list: run dogs, get kids outside.

Where do you take your kids to connect with nature that's a little outside the box?

by Melynda @ www.yourwildchild.com