Temps in the 70s, dry and sunny...was like March or September....in July! Last year it was 105F here!
So we made the most of the weather and headed out to one of our favorite things to do...hike!
Saturday Morning we tried out Power Valley Nature Park and really liked it. We saw lots of deer (4 bucks too) and had an easy time with the 1+ mile paved paths through the woods. There were lots of bridges and creeks to go over, which always makes it fun.
Ok, which trail do we take? We had two separate old people tell us that we'd be carrying Ethan by trail end...pff...you old people suck...Ethan made the full Hickory Ridge Trail without ever needing to be carried! Go Ethan!
1 and 1/5 mile...let's do it!
Best Bros...always.
This park will be awesome when the fall colors come in.
And there's a deer..
Taking a rest for a quick snack of squeezy applesauce.
Baby deer in the very middle...gotta look closely :)
Outside the nature center was this frog...they boys had to ride him.
Then it was on to Dewey's Pizza for lunch and a cookie at MacArthurs and eat it the Kirkwood train station hoping that a train would come by...it didn't :(
FF to Sunday...now we had heard that Eckert's in Grafton had pick your own Blackberries...and to our surprise just the day before (yesterday) the Grafton Ferry reopened (which takes like 45 minutes off our trip to Eckert's)....so off we went! Before the blackberries, we decided to hike again at a new place, this being the Pere Marquette State Park.
There she is! The Ferry is back!
The ferry had been down for 3 years, so Mooks had never remembered being on it. He thought it was cool.
Cruisin' with 15 of our friends...
On the high seas set for Grafton IL!
Pere Marquette was a really cool park. Lots of tough trails, prairies, hills, boulders, overlooks and well marked trails....we had a blast here this morning.
Brothers having fun.
Mommy and E coming up the hill.
Me and the lead scout Aidan trudging forward.
Stoping for a snack in a picturesque place.
Overlooking the confluence of the lllinois and Mississippi Rivers! Cool!
Click on this panorama...awesome!
It's us...the hiking fools..
Ethan did great again..negotiating all the tough terrain with a smile...and some silly.
Push those rocks apart guys so we can walk through! You're doing it!!
It's so fun to hike and come upon cool things like this to see.
Awesome bluffs, like 80ft tall!
That's Big A, the Mountain Man.
Ethan striking a pose (he said Aidan taught him this)
And we made it! The finish line!
So we were then on to Eckert's for some picnic lunch of summer sausage, macaroni and potato salad, and cheese. Then..time to pick some blackberries.
There were a ton that we're quite ripe enough yet, give it a few weeks...but as you can see, we still got about 3 pounds worth!
Get 'em big guy!
So much fun to do these things....
And you can see there that we got a bunch!!
That's all for tonight, have a great week!
Ty, Emmy, Aidan and Ethan...
PS...we spotted a Pirate Ship on the waters of the Mississippi!!
No comments:
Post a Comment