Over the River and Through the Woods

We had storms last night, which left the weather this morning wonderfully cool.  The girls and I picked up Granny and headed for Chaplin Nature Center.

We hiked through the woods, listening to birds and finding deer tracks.

The woods were lovely, but the girls far more excited about the end of the trail - a huge, empty sandbar at the edge of the river.

It's the closest thing we have to a beach and it IS a lot of fun to play on!

The girls had a ball digging holes.  They eventually figured out that if they dug near the river's edge, their holes would fill with water.  That was REALLY exciting.

(You gotta love the squat...)

And then we had fun climbing the dead trees that have washed up in past floods.  Katherine pretended she was "mountain climbing".

And Rachel found bugs, of course.  There were ladybugs and roly polys, and even a tiny grasshopper that she wanted to bring home (he's hidden in her hands here).

We spent the entire morning on the sandbar, just enjoying nature.

We hiked back and had a picnic lunch.  And had long naps.