Adventures At Lake Merwin Campers Hideaway

Ezra asks to go to the beach at least 20 times a day, every day. He loves the beach. The ocean beaches that is. It's been a really long time since we've been to the beach, but his memory is fantastic. He knows he loves the beach because even at 2 years old he remembers the beach and how much fun he had the last time he was at the beach (which was aaaallll the way back in September). His memory is pretty amazing. To try and make him happy, we planned a trip to a lake where a friend has a trailer he let us stay in for the weekend, and hoped the large body of water and sandy embankments would trick him somehow into being the equivalent to the ocean beach. It worked. He loved it and we all had quite the adventure!

Some of the most memorable moments we had this weekend at Merwin Lake include the deer Esperanza walked (and did a sort of head bow squat to along the way) right up to, the story about how Ezra's front tooth died and of course the sad news we received just as we were packing up into the car to head out of town for the weekend. I'll come back to add details to these stories and events when I have more free time for writing. For now, enjoy the picture show.

Walks in Grandma's Back 40

Behind the house where my mom lives is a large piece of open property she likes to walk her dogs. Sometimes when the kids and I go visit, if it's nice enough weather, we'll go for walks with them. The kids love running with the dogs, tossing the ball for them, walking them along the path with a leash, exploring the area, picking berries when they are in season and just playing and having fun. There were several beautiful days this past month where we did some of these things with my mom and her dogs. There was one day Angelica joined us as well.

Nature Walk With Opal and Anycia

The kids and I went on a nice little nature walk with Opal and Anycia today. It was a crisp, dry day and we headed over to Steigerwald Lake National Wildlife Refuge. It's such a beautiful and peaceful place to be. We love the trail there because the trail is flat and is super easy for the kids and people are not allowed to bring dogs, which helps keep the peace. While there, we spotted 1 deer, 8 ducks, 1 blue heron, approximately 5,637 Canada geese, 5 garter snakes, many different species of birds I couldn't identify and 1 slug.

Needle Felted Ducklings

Our friend Holly inspired me to needle felt some ducks recently. They turned out so incredibly cute!!