As I sit here and write this I have a weird concoction of crushed Vitamin C tablets and clarifying shampoo on my head, but that’s a whole other story. I will say there is some fine music in the Bruce house today. I have completely fallen in love with Alexa. So far my favorites are the Jimmy Buffet station, Billy Joe Shaver station and just random 90’s music.

It was such a beautiful day yesterday. A little windy, but the sun was shining at it wasn’t freezing out. The kids and I planned to make a run to Gamestop and Walmart, but once we were in the car we knew we needed to be outside. To the trails it was.

Longview, TX has a series of trails that run throughout our town. It’s a good thing because there are no sidewalks, so if you walk in your neighborhood, you are taking your life into your own hands. Seriously.

There are several parks you can start from. I prefer Rice Park when I’m jogging because there are restrooms and if you’ve had kids you know how important this is.

There are mile markers all the way down. If you don’t have an app to let you know how far you’ve gone, these are pretty handy.

There is a man that walks all over Longview. I always see him walking the 281 Loop that runs around our town. Hot, cold or rainy, it doesn’t stop him. I named him Ric Flair because he looks so much like the wrestler when he was in his prime. I have always wanted to find out his story because he fascinates me. Imagine my surprise when we were at one of the workout stations and he was there. I was about a foot away from him!!! He was exercising and I wanted, so badly, to ask him some questions. I knew this would have mortified my kids, so I just said hi. Lame. I did get a pic of him walking in front of us. One day. One day I WILL get his story.

Something else we have never noticed before today were the locks on the bridge. It’s like we have our own Pont des Arts bridge right here in our little town.

These pictures were taken on two separate bridges. There were more locks, but I only snapped a picture of these. I think it’s such a cool idea. I did find out they all the locks were cut off of the “Love Lock bridge” in Paris because the weight of all the locks made the bridge so heavy it became unsafe. I think the few that are on these will be okay. I think it’s a cool idea anyway.

There are two big awesome dog parks down the way. We always meet some really cool dogs on our walks. The labradoodle was my favorite yesterday. I would have snapped a pic, but I didn’t want to seem creepy asking if I could take a picture of their dog.

We were only going to stay for about 30 minutes, but ended up walking for over an hour.

It was just perfect outside.

Our favorite place to stop and take a break on the way back is the hanging swing.

These kids. Today’s topic was centering around music and some of their favorite bands. Hannah likes The Neighborhood and Jack’s very, very favorite (for now) is Panic at the Disco. I’m always finding little nuggets of information when we take the time to lay down the electronics and get to have these good, non rushed conversations.

That was the favorite part of my day. Hope yours was good.

Stacy