Today's hiking adventure took place at Deer Run Forest Preserve. None of us had ever been to this one before and it was only 20 minutes from the house.
I have no idea why they are blocking all access to the parking lots of the forest preserves, but we parked in the tiny bit available and walked down the rest of the road to get to the trails. These trails were more off road than the last ones. Grass, mud, rocks. The kids loved it.
There weren't near as many fallen trees as at the Severson Dells Forest Preserve, but the kids managed to find a few.
Vivian would like us invest in some fishing gear so we can fish in this river the next time we come.
We saw two prairie garter snakes on the trail and it was the first time I have ever seen snakes in the wild (and that includes living in Colorado and Texas!). David is all about investigating every living thing he finds.
One of the reasons I wanted to come to this preserve today was that I had heard the bluebells were getting ready to bloom! I think in a couple more days they will be truly spectacular!
This sign made the children very happy because Elisabeth is currently obsessed with frogs and really wants to own one. The rest of the kiddos did not need to be persuaded to follow her into this area to look for them.
They looked all around here for almost 20 minutes and didn't find one until the very end when Vivian found a baby frog. They all gathered around and watched it go into the ginormous puddle. They did, however, manage to gather every bit of mud they could onto their shoes. It was gloriously muddy.
Today is our 21st dating anniversary!!
These kids are total troopers. We used to go out on adventures like these a lot more in years past, but not really since we've had the boys. David asked me where we'd go next and I was happy to tell him that we have a few more forest preserves we'd like to visit.
After our hike, we came home, watched Mass on the computer, and then Evan and I went out on a quarantine date! All of the coffee shops were closed by then, so we grabbed frosties from Wendy's and drove to the river.
We came home to find the boys had started a Worm Inspection company. As David excitedly told us, "We are inspectin' worms! We're keepin'em safe!"
David was digging for worms and then Thomas would pick them up (because David doesn't like to pick them up unless he has gloves) and depositing them into a bucket of dirt. Thomas would then shake the bucket all around because, and I quote, "Dey like it!"
When we got out of the car from our date, we heard a weird noise that was one of Evan's tires leaking air. David was THRILLED to be of service to such an important job as putting on the spare tire.
Thomas was giving me the play-by-play.
We had our Sunday Dinner Party tonight with the veggie (and grape!) tray, nachos, buttered popcorn, and cinnamon popcorn. We watched another episode of Lego Master Builders and it was quite the nail biter! Once we've finished this show, we're going to have to figure out another family show to watch that truly entertains all seven of us. We're open to suggestions!
Evan and I picked up curbside some local beer to finish off our date night.
It was a good day.
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