Canoe Trip

The other day we went to a nature reserve and went canoeing.

My husband got the car ready with the canoe on top. It's not easy strapping a canoe to a little two door car, but it can be done.

Here's our car with our cool canoe and our cool bumperstickers.

Here's our car with our cool bumperstickers and our cool canoe and our cool kids...my daughter is going to the dentist soon--really.
(The above photo brings a question to mind for me--Those of you with older kids who have been through this, at what age do kids stop making silly faces for the camera? Just wondering.)

My son and I went out paddling across the lake first. My son got out at an island and explored and I stayed in the canoe and held onto a log near the shore and waited for him to come back. We heard a loud bird call, and my son looked until he found the bird. Then it was my daughter and husband's turn.

While my daughter and husband went out paddling, my son and I enjoyed sitting in the shade on the shore and soaking up the nature. Then he climbed a tree because he can not sit still long when he is out in the fresh air.

He looked up the bird in the bird field guide--we think what he he had seen was a grey jay.

He found the shell of an interesting insect, I looked at it and then an earwig crawled out of it unexpectedly and I shrieked hysterically. Smooth...

My son threw a rock into the water to make ripples that he photographed.

He looked up a tree and took a picture.

My daughter and husband got back with a rock that looks a little like the shape of Illinois.

My daughter heard a bird overhead and looked for it.


Then it was my son and husband's turn to go out.

While my son and husband were out taking their turn paddling around, my daughter and I went under the docks at the cement boat launches and pretended we were trolls. First, she visited my side.

She dipped her feet in the cool water.

She then went over to her own bridge and said menacing things to me--she was the Queen of Trolls and I was only allowed my own bridge by her good graces. Thank goodness I was on her good side.

My daughter went down the dock to meet the paddlers when they got back, just before it started to rain and we had to go.

It was a beautiful day.