If you're looking for outdoor fun for kids, hiking is one way to go. Daddy Clay shares his experience of a hike with his kid in this episode of Quality Time. Watch as they load up their hiking gear and hit the trails only to be derailed by Clay's allergies. Still, outdoor play can be fun and trekking through nature can offer some good parenting moments as Clay found out. DadLabs ep. 450 "Quality Time" brought to you by BabyBjorn.

CLAY Welcome back to Quality Time, the show where we talk about activities that work with our kids. This week it’s all about a hike in the Enchanted Forest with Sneezy the Dwarf.

This weeks show is brought to you by Baby Bjorn -- start your hikes in the Enchanted Forest early with a Baby Bjorn Spirit Carrier. So I’m reading a friend’s blog -- littleandbig.typepad.com all about the crafty, organic, non-media saturated activities she does with her kids, when my four year old walks up and asks if he can watch me play Spore. Now I’m more of bar and grill, than fin and feather, but I decided it was time to get the kid outside. There are hiking trails that start just a few hundred yards from our back door, so I decided we would go for a nature walk. We pack our bag. Just the essentials: BPA free water bottle, sweatshirt, granola bar, six foot rubber anaconda. The anaconda is for scaring off birds and intimidating stop signs. So we hit the trails and Coop is hitting me with a steady narrative on Spore characters, so I try to distract him. I say “keep a sharp eye out for cool things and we’ll take pictures.” And now he’s on it, he sees cactus, a stump, some rocks. The trail markers are cool. And I’m showing him how to use a camera, and we’re talking and the whole “Beautiful Moment” thing is starting to shape up when we come to a little obstacle.
The little gulley crossing has been washed our so we have to plan how to get across and when he get over the little guy is so proud. Maybe a little too proud. Then I sneeze. Just a little sneeze and I suddenly realized I was doomed. You may not get it if you’re not from Austin, but for a highly allergic person to go for a walk in January in a forest of mountain cedar...is nasacidal. I’m trying to keep up the
chatter with Coop but my eyes are burning like someone threw acid in my face. And I’m getting a little disoriented, and I miss a sign, and I fear for a moment that we may actually be lost. Which is a sad comment on my orienteering skills because the trails are all loops. We stagger into the daylight near a soccer field, which is nowhere near where I thought we would come out, but there’s a practice going on so we sat down, and coop had a granola bar while I wheezed and tried to compose myself. He asked me to take a last photo of the flag. We got home and I took a pill, and while Coop didn’t just go on and on about our walk, definitely felt more connected, and got lots of extra hugs from the little guy at bedtime. Bottom line: just a simple walk in the woods can be great quality time, as long as you take an anti-histimine. Thanks to Baby Bjorn you start your walks in the woods early with the Spirit Baby Carrier. See you next week.