It’s no surprise that we like love to spend time outside…it doesn’t matter what we’re doing, we all just love to be outside. And, part of enjoying the outdoors is helping keep it enjoyable right?

We recycle. We compost. We leave our campsites/picnic areas cleaner than they were when we arrived. We don’t litter. In fact, I know we’ve given some random strangers some pretty good chuckles in grocery store parking lots when Rylee notices trash on the ground and very loudly says “MOMMY! Somebody littered! They should not do that! They should use the trash!”

But, I’ve never been one to “do anything” for Earth Day.

When I was at Toyota Headquarters back in Feb/March, they talked a lot about their philanthropic efforts…they really “walk the walk” as a company when it comes to their environmental efforts. And it really inspired me.

I mean, they freaking recycle their billboards and make really cool tote bags, for goodness sakes!

I knew I had to do something to follow their lead.

When I realized that Earth Day was coming up, I reached out trying to find some local volunteer things we could do as a family. Granted, I didn’t look too hard, but it seemed like everything was either on Saturday when we’d be out of town, or at least two hours away.

I figured since this was my/our first official Earth Day “excursion” we’d keep it simple and start small. We all have to start somewhere and something is better than nothing, right? So, when we got home from the coast, we lathered on the sunscreen and headed outside with a trash bag.

While waiting for Andy to finish up mowing the front field yard, we took some time to stop and smell the roses lawn daisies. We even made Ry a daisy chain.

After he was done, we took our trash bag and headed out to the road where we picked up litter up and down the road.

To be honest, living on a dead end country road I was really surprised at how much stuff we found…especially considering we did a pretty small stretch. A few little car parts, a beer can, candy wrappers and other random trash. Seriously disappointing.

Even though we didn’t do anything earth shattering or ground breaking, I’m glad we were able to get out and do something. It’s never too early to start teaching little ones about taking care of where we live and I’m thinking next year, we’ll make it a goal to do our ENTIRE road!

Crap, know what I just realized? Earth Day next year, I’ll be toting around a NINE MONTH OLD!

That just blew my mind a little bit.

Did you get out and do anything for Earth Day?

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For more info on some of the environmental programs Toyota is involved in, you can check out Together Green.

Disclosure: I was selected for participation in the TWIN community through a program with Clever Girls Collective. I did not receive any compensation for writing this post, or payment in exchange for participating. The opinions expressed herein are mine, and do not reflect the views of the Toyota.