Saturday, March 10, 2012

Hiking with Jedis

 Today Benny has his friend Eric over to spend the day with us, and in all actuality Eric is all the kids' friend, as they get as pumped for his visits as Benny does. We headed to French Park, one of our favorite hiking places. Today, instead of just bringing along boots they also brought their light sabers so that they could be Jedis in the woods. Even Mere, although I ended up carrying hers and Charlie's the majority of the time.

 First stop, the swings. The boys ran ahead of us and our (Mere's) short legs and they were doing "supermans" on the swings as well as rocking side-to-side.

 Meredith is obsessed with playgrounds and will point out everyone she sees. She has the amazing ability to see them off the side of the highway when we're traveling at 65 mph.

 After the swings we decided to take a new way into the woods, which gave us a great new part to explore.
 This is their first Jedi pose. Luckily the water wasn't as high as the last time we were here. Fingers crossed for no slipping into the creek!

 This is their second Jedi pose. Meredith wanted to get in on the action.

 I like that the boys can be problem solvers, trying to figure out together how to get through the creek. But then, I am a mother, and on top of that I am a worrier. I kept trying to channel Kevin as Meredith and I hiked alongside the creek.

 I love surprises! I was so excited to find this beaver carved on the top of a tree that had died. It is so cute--someone left a couple of other animal figurines to keep him company.

 I reckon someone set this here purposely, but it was neat to find a rock shaped like Ohio!

 This is something that I'll have to research more into, but we found this plaque on the ground. My first thought is that it's a marker for the French family's pets, but who knows.

Unfortunately, we only made it as far as the usual starting point for us. That is ok though, as the trail there leads up to the lot where we parked. The kids did end up getting a little wet and I think at this point they were starting to get hungry. Regardless, this sparked in us enthusiasm for exploring other corners of this great park!

2 comments:

Amanda said...

Did you take that rock home with you?! I don't think I could have resisted it. I'm a natural thief.

annie said...

It's a struggle for me! When I was little my grandpa would take us hiking and whenever I wanted to pick a flower or the like, he'd remind me that it is better for everyone to enjoy it rather than just myself. That's not to say I don't sometimes take souvenirs!