Flip Flops and Hiking

What did we do for President's Day?  I'm so glad you asked!  We've spent a lot of time at home lately, unpacking and all, so we decided to venture out a little bit and explore one of the hiking trails close by.  I loved that we didn't have to get up early to go and that it wasn't an all day thing.  We waited until Isaac woke up from his nap and drove about 10 minutes away from our house and boom, we were there!

The warning sign about the rattlesnakes made some of us (KP) a little nervous, but after reassuring that it was still too cold for snakes we were able to move on.  There were a lot of cacti (plural, right?) and rocks around.  We were even close enough to see the Tram on the mountain moving up and down.

This was Isaac's first time in the backpack and I had forgotten how much hair is fun to play with.  Most of the time we were hiking he was pulling my hair and I was trying to keep it out of his hands!

We had to stop more than a few times to empty rocks out of shoes, check out the terrain, have a sword fight with a granola bar, and enjoy the view.  Caleb got a little worried when Brandon told him that there were wild animals out there that would eat him alive. 

We also found an arroyo that the kids had fun in climbing over the rocks.  Caleb filled his pockets with rocks while Kelsie and Brandon raced up and down and all around.  I am so curious to see what it's going to look like around here when things start to turn green less brown.  We're looking forward to more hikes and possibly even a backpacking trip this summer.  We may have to rethink that one since Isaac likes to pull hair and Kelsie almost had a breakdown when we talked about it, but it might happen!

 

It has been so nice here that we've finally had to break out the flip flops and turn off the heat during the day.  I have been opening windows as well!  I can't remember the last time I did that in February! 

*pictures by Kelsie

Kettle Moraine State Park

Paradise Springs, Kettle Moraine State Park

After we were done at the apple farm, we headed north to Wisconsin to visit Kettle Moraine State Park. Thanks to many recommendations from my awesome father-in-law, we had a great afternoon hiking around and enjoying some new scenery. We went to Paradise Springs, which was a naturally made spring complete with fish (although I'm not sure where the fish came from), and were able to hike around. The kids had a great time throwing sticks into the creek and finding interesting things like rocks, leaves, and pine cones. We even put our feet in the water and it was sure cold!

Can we really put our feet in the water?

The second hike was a .7 mile loop (a.k.a. the brown one) on the Nordic trail. The kids all had a great time walking around in nature and seeing so many fun things, including a tiny snake! Caleb loved his freedom, but got pretty tired by the end of our hike and ended up on Dad's shoulders. The only downside of our escapade into Wisconsin was the many, many, many mosquito bites we came home with! I guess that means we have some sweet blood!

Our cute little hikers.

How cute is this face?

Some serious attitude in this one!

Kelsie had a good time video taping part of our hike, video-diary style, and insisted that we put it on our blog for everyone to enjoy. A word of caution: it's a little dizzy...you might need your dramamine!