Hiking.

What a great day. The kids have wanted us to take them hiking for over a year now, and it finally worked out! If you can call it hiking. It was more like walking on a trail for half a mile, and then back again, but it filled the day and brought smiles and laughter to our kids faces.
They loved the little stream where they could put their feet in and get wet, and throw rocks in. They thought the little steep incline we went up to get to the bridge was challenging. They loved the overgrown tree they could practically hide inside and try to scare Rich and I as we walked by. They loved looking down from the edge of the bridge into the deep river far below, well Max didn't love that part. His feet felt shaky on the slats he could see through, and liked the solid dirt path a whole lot better. Just on the other side of the bridge we found this great hill. If you could call it that. The kids wanted to run up it and see if they could get to the top of it. Sophie was the first to attempt it and my first instinct was to yell out 'No, you'll get dirty!' But it was too late, and they all had a turn, running up, and getting dirty. Rich finally showed the kids up and was able to run up to the top. Dirty and clean old fashioned fun. After a little clean up we ate our picnic lunch. I love picnics. And the best part was this tiny caterpillar. We all took turns holding it on our finger and watching it crawl. It was so cute. And when we were almost back to the car we found thousands of them in a tree. Eating the leaves, and also hanging from tiny silk threads, maybe getting ready to make a cocoon. What a great day...