Take a hike!

(clicking on pictures will enlarge them)

Three energetic little children arrived at my house this morning all dressed in clean clothes and ready for the day.  From "no where" the thought entered my mind to take them to the Seiberling Nature Realm, part of the Summit County Metro Parks System.  I'm ashamed to say that though this particular conservation park is only about 10 miles away, I've never been to it before!  I was in for a very pleasant surprise!

(If you click to enlarge this picture, you will see a little guy posing)

Thankfully we had  Dora the Explorer Elylah to guide us with a map...

and watch the signs along the way...

And I was glad we packed a little lunch to bring along...

When we arrived at this spot, I encouraged Ethan and Elylah to take a long look around and say a prayer of thankfulness for all the beauty of the good earth that God created for us to enjoy...

The Visitor's Center was quite impressive.  Everything was nice and clean, air conditined, and very "hands on" for the children.  They could learn what the land in our area was like 200 years ago, and why we need to practice sustainable habits for the sake of our environment.

I loved the way they had little step stools so the kids could see

a teaching "recycling center"

a replica of a Great Blue Herron and nest

art created with recycled materials

The above four photos were taken from behind a one-way glass. We could see the wild life, but they couldn't see us!

I was very happy to think of something "free" to do today that was fun and would wear them out so they'd rest this afternoon.  One last "perk" we had on the way home...we had run out of water and everyone was very hot and thirsty.  I pulled up to a McDonald's drive through window and asked only for 3 glasses of ice water, and offered to pay for them.  The girl was so sweet and waved me on...

Our little field trip to the Nature Realm reminded me of the words of two great old hymns...

♫ Were the whole realm of nature mine

that be an offering far too small

love so amazing, so Divine

demands my soul, my life, my all. ♫

+++

♫ For the beauty of the earth

for the glory of the skies

for the love which from our birth

over and around us lies.

Lord of all, to Thee we raise,

this our hymn of grateful praise! ♫

It's a beautiful day in the neighborhood...

Well, it wasn't a particularly "pretty" day, as it was cloudy and threatening to rain, but the temperature was down into the '70's and I decided it was a good day to take the grandkids for a walk around the neighborhood. I wore my watch as I wanted to make sure I got in a good half hour of walking exercise.

So we started out like this--Elylah wanting to ride the little car that she is actually too big for, and me pushing sleepy Ethan in a stroller.

We made it around the first cul-de-sac, eventually, but we were getting no where fast, and I was definitely not getting anything I could with a good conscience call exercise!

So we left the little car behind and went off to see what we could see...

What a beautiful pool one neighbor around the corner has. We actually saw several pools...and lots of interesting yard art...

Not as many of these as I thought we'd see...

then there was another kind of sign...

some perky flowers...

and some that were getting very tired...

We saw a lot of these...

Whoops...is this a mistake...or a statement?

We stumbled into this...

I just love the beautiful willow trees...

I wonder how long it would take me to grow one like this?

We saw lots and lots of these...but no children playing on them, sadly...

Because as unbelievable as it is...

Fall is just about here...

And our city schools started today...We did see a few kids getting in a bike ride...

And we saw this jogger twice, getting a lot more exercise than I was...

Pushing Ethan was a whole lot easier!

Here's an inviting scene we saw on my friend's front porch...

We saw these beautiful and friendly dogs...

and another one named Champ who really wanted to play...

Good fences make good neighbors?

We were surprised by this pear tree...

And this apple tree...

I did a double-take when I saw this...

because for 45 years my parent's street address was "1552" !

Looking "up", we saw this:

and we started walking faster!

"yes 'n' hey it's good to be back home again..."

Hope you enjoyed coming along on our walk. I checked my watch, and we were out for 1 1/2 hours!

~~This is the day which the LORD has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it.~~

Psalm 118:24