Go To The Mountain

Corey took the kids on a hike tonight! They loved it.

They left right after dinner. Corey didn't know where he was taking them at first, he just said he was going and for whoever else wanted to go to get in the car. They quickly piled in. started on a walk up the trail. 

 At 6:30 they were having fun, Sophia asked if the hike was "for free". Yes, and good to have a cost aware child. One of the most exciting parts was seeing a tarantula!!!!

Lily was the first one to the top

Owen enjoyed throwing rocks into the water and seeing the "ducks" 

Playing in the mud -

Sophi striking a pose.

Group pictures

Climbing on rocks...

Ready to head back down.

I'm glad the kids were able to get out, hopefully we'll get out some more this next week while the fall colors are out in their glory. Owen was so excited when he got home, telling me "I go to the mountain!"

Another fun fall thing that happened today when we were outside in the backyard... I was out checking out our newly cleared area and Daniel followed me out, so I pushed him on the swing, he loved it. Then it was Owen's turn. Cute boys.

So I also went into the backyard to investigate a mystery... A few weeks ago, Wes and I were looking for something in the shed and we go in there, and there are a ton of pinecones all over the table there. Hyrum and Wes had turned it into their Airsoft Gun Base and had a table with their guns and gear, but the guns and camouflage clothing were all covered in green pinecones. I thought "Well that's weird... Where did all these come from? I haven't seen the little girls doing this - this would be buckets and buckets of pinecones.... I never noticed Hyrum or Wes doing this.... are these like pretend grenades for their airsoft battles? What is going on?" And then I wondered about the squirrel. There is a squirrel we often see in the trees, and I've seen his discarded pinecone cores. I wondered if he was the collector. Today I heard him in the backyard, so I went out and over to the swingset which was a safe distance from the shed, to see what I could observe. And then sure enough... down the tree came the squirrel with a pinecone in his mouth.

Up and over the junk then through the broken window into the shed, then out of the shed without the pinecone! All those pinecones have been put there by the squirrel!! He has been working so hard! And wow, I love how he's planning ahead and preparing for the future! We like that kind of initiative! We'd love to see more of that in our kids! I think we'll use Mr. Squirrel as an example! He's got such a stockpile! It is hilarious!

That is just one corner of the shed. It's huge!! They must be high energy creatures, cause if I was the size of a squirrel and I had piles of food that tall, I'd relax and not worry, I would be set with enough food for a long time. But I guess it's not enough food for a squirrel cause he's still working. There is no way we are going to clean up the shed, that would be so sad to undo all his hard work. So the shed is going to belong to the squirrel until next spring.

He deserves it.