Blue Skies + Happy Kids = Smile on My Face

On Thursday, I couldn't stand the sibling conflict one more second and knew that we needed 

a change of scenery. The weather was GORGEOUS! Low 80's. Low humidity. Beautiful blue skies. 

It wasn't on our schedule that I posted the night before, 

but they handled the spontaneous change in plans just fine.

"No summer school today? Sure! I don't mind." :)

Even with a GPS, I got turned around and a 20 minute drive turned into 45 minutes. 

Thankfully, we found our way and it was totally worth the confusion. 

Isn't this lovely!?!?! I couldn't stop taking pictures. 

The blues, greens, white puffy clouds, the colors of the kids shirts... it was captivating to me. 

 I took them to a park that we've only been to once before a couple years ago.

There are walking trails alongside a river. We did hike the trails, 

but we spent most of our time by the water. 

 They asked to take their shoes off and when I said "Sure!" they were delighted! 

"Please try not to go in any further then your knees," I said. 

"Yes, Mommy," was their reply.

They were leaping from rock to rock and not phased by the hot rough rocks. 

I don't know how because my feet were throbbing when I was jumping around. 

(I did set down my camera and join in the fun.)

"Me likes, Mommy! Me likes water!" Irina shouted again and again.

 There were quite a few "slips" into the water so we air dried off and explored the trails some more. 

 Then, we had a little extra time to do more rock jumping before we needed to leave. 

They seemed to have forgotten my earlier request to try not to get wet above their knees.

 They got more and more daring. "See Mommy. My clothes not wet."

 Whoops! Somehow Ethan seemed to keep getting wetter and wetter. 

Irina  and Aaron decided they needed to experience it too. Thankfully, it was 

pretty shallow where we were and the current wasn't too strong. 

Look at the little otter swimming down the stream. 

Luke finally decided it was okay to get wet too.

Next time we'll bring a change of clothes and towels! They were drenched, but it was so worth it. 

What a fun day of making memories and letting kids be kids.