A cool morning in the woods…

Went on a hike this morning.

In my enthusiasm to be cool, I climbed a tree with my kids. It was such a thick and large tree, none of us realized that it was a Poison Ivy tree! The thing must have been about 18 inches in diameter. It looked like a legit tree.

We were looking at the leaves then realized it was  leaves of three and waxy ones!!!!

We decided YOLO ( you only live once)! I mean we were already on the tree.

   Then there were the deer… We had been taking a path off the trail. It was a well-worn path but it was also narrow.   I thought we would be just beyond the brush.  It turned out that this trail was probably blazed by the deer! We heard a rustle in the leaves just beyond us . We followed this winding trail as the grasses got taller. Then I could hear the water from the creek.  What I heard was the pair of deer swimming across the creek away from us!

They were a bit camera-shy!

It was a nice cool morning. I feel lucky that we are not itching. Hope our camping trip will work out tomorrow.

family hike

This morning after my overnight shift, we had a nice breakfast then a family hike.

We did talk about how today is memorial day and you need to think about the people who have made sacrifices, served, fought , and died for our freedoms. Freedom comes at a price.

We talked about the different wars and how things have changed throughout the years in regards to wars, the draft, women in combat, etc.

I wanted to make sure they understood  that it wasn’t just an extra day that Daddy was home or that we didn’t “school”. We don’t go shopping.

We go on a hike.

We went to Rock creek park and took one of our off the beaten path routes. It was a warm slightly humid morning. Everything is  green  and the trail is muddy.  There were others out. We found a few swimming holes or wading pools. We spotted a lot of birds. the water was flowing a bit more rapidly as it had stormed last night.

    We observed these birds first in early spring.  The Kingfisher swoop back and forth across the creek with their unusual call.

Phil and I taught the kids how to skip stones. We found little clams and Julia had little minnows tickling her feet under water.

Waded around and resisted to lay down and let the current take us down stream. There are so many fallen trees, rocks and broken glass we need to be cautious.

We moved on and found a treasure. this little guy was curled up near the trail we took. I remember seeing the deer near this area.

We first spotted a doe and two others.  My oldest said look. I could see nothing. Finally she said look down! There was this little fawn. I remember when we monitored Blue birds at a local golf course, the groundskeeper who was a naturalist as well said sometimes, they “hide” like this near a tree.   This little guy’s Mom was close by.

   It was a treasured moment. We all agreed that was most unexpected and wonderful surprise.