The Park in Autumn

On Thursday, we spent a morning at the park.  This is always just the loveliest of ways to spend a morning.

We begin on the playground, where we climb, swing and cavort.

After enjoying the playground for a bit, we work up an appetite and take time out for an outdoor snack.

While we're waiting for everyone to finish their snack, we climb, swing and cavort some more...

Then it's time for a hike on the bike path.  Rachel had designed an awesome nature scavenger hunt for us.

Everyone had a bag with items to find and so we began our trek.

We were searching for leaves of many colors, acorns, rocks, tree bark, sticks, seeds, pine cones and animal tracks.

Soon, we broke off the asphalt path and trekked through the woods to the rocky beach of the creek.

There, we enjoyed skimming stones, searching for more nature treasures like mica and quartz...

...and testing the slippery slopes of moss covered rocks...

...all the while serenaded by the rushing sounds of the creek alongside of us and the wind through the trees above.  Pure bliss!

Soon we left the creek and returned to the trail, which now narrowed to a billy goat's path, but not before a group photo!

You'll see we had some younger sibs (and a Mom!) joining in the fun of the day!  Enzo and Liam are still nursing injured feet, so Enzo traveled with us on bike, while Liam traveled in his stroller.  

Here we are on the narrow path that runs along the creek, going deeper and deeper into the woods.  We had to move single file!

Kevin was fascinated with how TALL the trees were and how they swayed in the breeze.

Every now and then, I'd flip a decaying log so we could look for signs of life hiding beneath.  We'd see a scampering bug or an ant, but as you can see, I'd have to take their word for it!

And still we worked on scavenging for nature!

Back on the trail and reunited with Enzo and his bike!

Whenever I'd ask, "Which direction should we go to get back to the playground?", my fellow hikers always knew the way.  Chene said, "We're making a loop!"

Eventually, we came to the spot where Lili's mom had stashed her stroller.  It took team effort to bring it through the leaves, mud and roots back to the path.  Together, no job is too big.

We had to amend "animal tracks" on our scavenger list to just plain tracks! Enzo could probably identify these easily!

Lunchtime!  And then we headed back to school.  Just as we loaded the cars up, the rain began.

What a wonderful morning!  We'll visit the park again in winter.  I wonder what changes we'll observe then?