Gimli wanted to travel. It had been three days in Bag End, days filled with joy and plenty of food, but Gimli was in a way slightly ruined by the quest years ago and now was always wanting a short journey somewhere to keep himself occupied. Nothing was stopping anyone from a one day journey now, even Poppy and Merry were now better, both still a little weak but well enough to sneak down to the cellars and steal some food from the larders, making Sam scold them both and their fathers try to look stern when they really just wanted to laugh at the appearance of the two young hobbits dripping on the floor because they had fallen into the water barrels.
The next morning at breakfast Gimli's urge to go somewhere got to him and he told everyone he wanted to take a short romp about Hobbiton at least, he just wanted to get out of doors again. The snow was still pretty thick on the ground but the skies were clear and Gandalf figured that today would be as good as any day. Gandalf decided he would go too, to see the state that Hobbiton was in, Frodo wanted to go and see the rest of the village, and Pippin and Merry were never against going somewhere. Faramir and Theoden desperately wanted to come along, and their fathers decided that they could under the conditions their mothers never knew about it. Sam's three sons that were at home with him saw that their two friends got to go and begged Sam to let them come along. Sam didn't know how he was going to tell them he couldn't, seeing as he had to stay home and care for the two younger hobbits who weren't yet able to go outside, but Legolas saved the day and told Sam he would stay at Bag End and to go along and take his sons on the little trip of the day. Poppy and Merry begged for an hour, but when they heard that they elf was staying; they figured that they could get away with all sorts of stuff and reluctantly agreed to stay, with warnings from their fathers to be good.
Legolas stood at the door with Poppy and Merry by his side, waving the others off and telling them that they better be back for supper, making the two hobbits by his side giggle. Once they were out of sight he shut the door tight, thinking that the day ahead was to be an easy one, with just two hobbits under his care. Elves don't know much about young hobbits though, and he was just a bit off when he thought it would be easy.
