Day of Discovery

On Saturday, we explored the closest state park, Paris Mountain State Park. It was gorgeous!

Not all the paths were like this, of course. But some of the structures were built before the turn of the last century, and the park officially opened as such in the 1930s.









I can't say we hiked, because when you hit the trail with a little boy, it's full-speed-ahead with intermittent hard braking. None of this steady paced, "oh, look at the lovely mountain laurel" nonsense. We saw geese with their goslings, turtles on a log, big fat honeybees and ants.


We found the sticks and dirt required to make any outing complete.
In addition, there was a playground with a soccer-field sized lawn.











Oh, and pine cones. How could I forget the pine cones?

SK is remarkably social. He'll make friends with anyone, anywhere, anytime. (One person we met recently told him that when he runs for office, to let them know and they'd vote for him) "Hi, what's your name? Where are you going?" is a phrase we hear often. He made friends with a little boy on the playground, and it turned out that the brother and sister and their Opa and Oma were going to the nature trail at the same time as us, so we adventured as a group.

The picnic area had a tremendous white oak that took my breath away. Can you see SK and KiSA underneath it?

So much of the scenery we see here is like this; like driving through one of those inspirational posters with a motivational word printed really big underneath. Just like that, except without the big black frame and the bad mall music.


































After 3+ years of fatherhood, KiSA finally tried out the wrap. He loved it! And I thought he wore it like a pro, lookin' pretty good if you ask me!