A Walk in the Woods

No, we didn't hike the entire Appalachian Trail, but we did cover a few miles of the Ice Age Trail near Whitewater.  We met Natalie, Noah, and Becky there after preschool today, and we were lucky that the weather was almost 70 add sunny.  The trail went through the woods at the start, up and down a hill, and then leveled out and passed through a prairie and near a lake. 

We were hoping to collect leaves, but most of the leaves had fallen already, and the only pretty ones we saw were aspens.  The kids had fun running down the trail; although poor Megan tripped on a rock and cut her lip.

 Natalie was getting tired of walking, and Becky's back and leg were bothering her, so they started walking slowly back to the car, while the other kids and I kept going down the trail.  Amelia and Noah were having a good time exploring, and I had a hard time convincing them that we needed to turn around.  On the way back, they stopped at a hole in the trail, and we talked about what kind of animal might live in the hole.  Noah thought it could be a mouse's house, and he stuck his hand down in the hole to see if he could feel anything.  All he found were some sticks that Natalie had put in the hole as snake food. 

I tried to get a cloesup photo of each kid; I think my best shot was of Natalie.

 

 But we did manage to get all four kids smiling and looking at the camera at the same time.  Amazing!  I pulled a Grandpa Jeff, and told them they were NOT ALLOWED TO SMILE while I counted to 10, and of course they cracked up the whole time.  Becky set her camera to take a million photos, so she might have an even better one than this, but I was thrilled with how cute everyone looks:

And here are the cousins hugging.  Becky's kids are great huggers; mine are not always sure they want to get hugs.

 Natalie and Noah found walking sticks, and then pretended they were riding horses down the trail:

At one point while we were walking, Noah (out of the blue) said "I like your dress, Megan" and Amelia immediately wanted to know if Noah liked her dress.  He said yes, and then she asked if he liked her hair, and he said no!  But then he said her liked her bow, and she was happy about that.  And Noah and Amelia were really acting silly; they were tackling each other and then sitting on each other.  Megan wanted to play, too, so she laid down on the trail:

Natalie was pretending to saw down a tree, while she was waiting for us to catch up to her.  I like this shot because of all the gorgeous yellow leaves, and then Natalie in blue.

And here, you may think Amelia is trying to give Noah the vulcan neck pinch, but really, she is singing "Inch mouse, inch mouse, going up to Noah's house" which is her new favorite thing to do.

We had such a nice time visiting with the Weidners!