An afternoon adventure in pictures

It is another lovely summer day here in northern Wisconsin. I am trying to get braver about taking all four kids out on my own, and I figured a good start would be somewhere away from crowds. We headed to Pattison Park, a beautiful state park near our home that is one of our favorite places.

The five of us walked into the woods, near one of the park's waterfalls. Most people walk up these grueling stairs once, but not Braden. No, Braden went up and down them five times while Coen and I slowly made our way up.



Coen gripped my hand as we walked up the stairs......



And once I finally let go of his hand (after going down another set of stairs) he celebrated his freedom.



I rounded up the other kidlets for a quick shot around Coen. Of course, it would be impossible to get any of them actually looking at the camera.



This is the waterfall we walked up and down all of those stairs to see.



Of course, then we had to go BACK UP the stairs.



While it appears that Coen is about to tip off of that stair, thankfully he pulled himself back straight and saved us from yet another trip to the ER.

As we heading up those stairs I spotted an immature pine cones that looked like fat, green caterpillar from a distance. Fat, green caterpillars are not my favorite thing, so I am never happy to see a look-a-like like this.



After all of the stair walking that we just did Regan was "so tired!" and she just had.to.take.a.break.before.she.passed.out. Whew! Good thing we had those nice stairs for her to take a break on.



Coen and I walked up the stairs hand in hand again, which would have been very sweet if we would not have had to stop on every.single.stair so he could grab a handful of dirt and exclaim, "Look, mom!"



Now, not a water fountain can go by without my kids insisting that we have to stop for a drink, and the fountains in Pattison Park are especially irresistible because they have not one, but two spigots. The kids flock to them like flies on cow dung.



They splashed and laughed.........



And Coen stopped to show me just how very wet he was getting.



My little, spunky girl Gwen had a fight with the water fountain and I am sorry to say that the water fountain won.



She did manage to keep the bandages on her hand dry, or as Gwen calls it her "cast". ;-P

Coen really wanted one last drink, but alas the other kids had run off and no one else was around to turn the water on for him. (I was too busy taking pictures, you know.) I guess he figured that if he put his mouth around the spigot and sucked really hard the water might just come out.



Braden got up on a tree stump so that he could pretend to be "taller" and then he gave us a speech about how much he likes trees.



Me, Braden, Gwen, and Regan then headed off to check out another trail. Coen was not happy about this, as he was having fun playing in the water puddles around the fountain. I tried to get him to come with, but he told me "no" in his 1 year old, no nonsense sort of way. I decided to say my good-byes and head off in the other direction, hoping that Coen would take to my reverse psychology and come with. It worked, but not before he stopped to point out to me where he really wanted to be.



Unfortunately, the trail that we went to check out was a dud. The five of us began to make our way back towards the main trail and along the way Regan did her reindeer impression for me.



Finally, the kids were getting tired and, of course, hungry. It never fails that they get hungry when we are out, even if they just ate lunch an hour ago, like today. Good thing Regan had the smarts to pack some drinks and a snack, which she doled out lovingly from her back pack to her siblings, and then they all sat and took some time to rest and eat.



Meanwhile, mama got some time to snap a couple of wild flower photos...........





As well as a picture of my sweet Gwennie and that wonderful smile of hers.



Once the snack was eaten and our garbage was packed into Regan's back pack, the three older kiddos asked if they could take some pictures with my camera. We've done this before, so I said yes. They know that they need to keep the strap around their necks and be very, very, very careful, lest the camera gets broken and I have a heart attack, killing me dead on the spot.

Regan went first and shot some embarrassing photos of my buttocks, which will not be posted at this juncture.

Then it was Gwen's turn. Now, this girl knows how to work the camera! The only processing I did was the black and white conversion. Gwen did such perfect in-camera composition that it didn't need to be cropped at all.



Finally, I handed my prized camera over the Braden. This is not my favorite thing to do as he isn't the most careful 3 year old boy in the world, but I worked through it with only a minor anxiety attack. He came through with this lovely shot:



Gwen and I laughed hard when we saw the picture immediately after Braden took it. I said, "Braden, that is a very nice picture of our legs!". The little squirt laughed and then with a mischievous smile he said, "Yeah, and I got your butt too!" That kid is dang lucky he is so charming otherwise.

Finally, it was time to head home. Coen was tired, mom was sweating like a stuck pig, and Gwen needed the dressings on her burn changed.

As we headed down that massive set of stairs one last time Coen was very careful to not fall, nor drop his uber unhealthy Capri Sun beverage.



I got one last shot of the beautiful nature scene around us.



Then we headed home with the not-so-soft sounds of Coen screaming, which was a fabulous reminder that he was two hours past his nap time.