a forest walk with Grandmpa and Grandpa

Last weekend, Dave's parents had a chance to come visit from Wyoming. For some reason, Jed had a hard time with the word 'grandma' and kept calling Elsa 'grandmpa' instead. Whatever their names are, we were so glad to be able to show them around and relax together and we had a great time.

Friday morning we went for a walk in the Big Slough Wilderness. It's an easy walk through the trees along a deconstructed railroad bed and we saw plenty of birds and flowers.

Jed being his cute self

Jed and Grandpa playing on a bench

Beautiful redbud tree blooming in the forest. It's hard to see the blooms when you look close, but when you stand far away, the misty purple looks so gorgeous against the background of the other trees.

Jed found a log with some interesting mushrooms growing out the side. He felt like he had to pull all the mushrooms off and knelt there for quite a while. Finally we convinced him to come along by telling him he could come back and pull off some more on the return trip.

One of the reasons we chose the Big Slough trail was because it had recently rained and we were hoping it would still be a little swampy. All of the water was where it belonged, but we did find this cool puddle in the hollow of a tree. Definitely not something you'd want to drink, even in an emergency...

...especially after you look closely! Those little gray sticks are mosquito larvae--they were all wiggly as we watched. Yuck.

We walked for about three hours and went about three miles. Jed walked almost the whole way--he had to be carried while he ate his trail mix, because he takes after his mama and can't walk and eat at the same time--and ran back and forth like a puppy. I am so glad that Jed loves being out in the woods like we do. It helps when you have cool, go-anywhere boots, I guess.

Scott, Dave and Jed picked up quite a bit of trash on the way back out--something about a wilderness trail seems to say "throw your beer cans and whiskey bottles here!" We forgot to bring a trash bag (I always tell myself to grab one, and I always forget) so it was quite the balancing act to carry out all the garbage. Jed had a great time with that huge brown bottle and carried it all the way back to the car.

Such a fun walk! And, best of all, we made it back to the car just in time, because it started pouring as we were buckling our seat-belts.

It was a great weekend, involving baby goats, a driving tour of Crockett, lunch at one of my favorite restaurants, shooting arrows in the back yard and lots of catching up. Thanks again for visiting, Grandmpa and Grandpa--we love you!