Scavengers

Today we took a field trip so Kelsey could identify some landforms for her social studies unit.  And, since she's doing social studies with our neighbor's daughter over the next few months, they came with us.  Before we left, both Olivia and Kelsey were armed with clipboards and a "nature bingo" card.  Our first stop was Hafer park, which has the benefit of being about 2 miles away and also has a duck pond.  As usual, Kelsey's favorite activity was climbing on the rocks.

 After a quick visit to Hafer, we headed over to Martin Park Nature Preserve, which has a river, lake, forest, and even an area that looks like a prairie.  Unfortunately for us, we forgot that it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.  So we headed over to a park on Lake Hefner instead.  After a quick view of the lake, it was play time at the park of course!

Connor is turning into such a poser.

We've never been to this park before, and the girls had a blast climbing on all of the new equipment.

This was apparently the object of choice.  Everyone wanted to pose on it.

And I do mean everyone.

Kelsey had a hard time giving it up so Olivia could have a turn.

But eventually Olivia did get it all to herself.

Then it was Eva's turn.

They really had a blast.

Kelsey had showed her skills on the monkey bars!

Olivia didn't have to work quite as hard to get across...

And Connor couldn't even reach.

Sometimes it doesn't take much for you just feel like you've conquered the world.

One cool thing about this park is that they had this area of plastic percussion instruments that the kids could play.  They were groovin'!

And since the Lion's Club apparently sponsored a lot of this park, even the water fountain paid homage.

And where was Maddox during all this excitement?  Sleeping in the van next to where we were sitting. (Don't worry - it was overcast and breezy by the lake and we left the van door open for circulation.)

Oh, how I love being outdoors again!  We timed this field trip just right.  As soon as we got home the sun came out and it heated everything up.

P.S. A local news story in today's Edmond Sun: "Oklahoma City topped 100 degrees Monday for the 51st time this summer, breaking the 1980 record for the most days at or above 100."  How I am grateful for the clouds this morning!!