There's Something About Nature

I have always loved being outdoors.  I spend a lot of my childhood in the mountains camping, and I have such fond memories.  For our field trip this past week, we took a hike up into our local mountains.  (For those of you who live close, this is the Cherry Springs trail.)  Before we left, I gave each of my boys a sheet of paper with a list of things we were going to find listed on it.  So, while we enjoyed being outside in the beauty of nature, we looked for: something a bird would use to build a nest, a rough rock, a leaf with a pointy tip, a flower, something smaller than your thumb, something larger than your thumb, a leaf that has been chewed on by an animal, something a squirrel might like to eat for lunch, a stick, a leaf that isn't green, a multicolored rock, and something that would be uncomfortable to walk on with bare feet.  It was a lot of fun and I think that doing our scavenger hunt along the way kept my kids interested a bit longer than they would have been. 

 We discovered this cool bridge.  My boys LOVE bridges! This bridge led to nowhere, but it was still cool to stand on it and drop leaves and sticks on one side and see them come out the other side. 

 Of course we had to take a rest.  There were actually benches all along this trail, but my boys insisted on finding rocks to sit on to rest instead.  This resting spot overlooked a part of the river/creek running along this trail. 

 This little guy was pretty happy.  He had to put everything into his mouth, and because he rode in the stroller the whole time, he was constantly being brushed in the face with flowers, branches, etc. that were hanging over the trail. 

 This is the leaf that Tyler found that was "something bigger than your thumb." 

 At the end of our nature walk, we hiked down the side of the trail to soak our feet in the cool water.

There was a rock just the perfect height for Greyson so sit on and it was nice to get cooled off.  The wonderful mother of these darling boys totally forgot to bring any water to drink, (oops!) so at least we could cool off a little this way.  My boys all said this was a favorite field trip.