One of Our Favorite Spots

Every Spring and Summer we try to make a few trips to one of our favorite parks.  For Ohio, it's pretty nice. Growing up in the Great Northwest we're pretty picky about what actually qualifies as "hiking".  There aren't any mountains to speak of 'round these parts, not even foothills, so we're terrain starved, but adapting. This park has trails that wind through the woods, a waterfall, a little cave action, and a stream.  With my kids, any place that has water to play in is a hit.  When we went this time there had been quite a bit of rain, the stream was pretty full and ran nicely over the pathway.  Usually, Emily is deathly (and I mean deathly) afraid of water. No, she never had a traumatic event that triggered her fear...its just part of her charm.  We've been trying to work with her and were hoping that this trip to the park would help her see the fun that water can be.  As you can see by the photo, she decided to "make friends" with the stream and played in it for quite a while.
While we were there we also encountered these fellas.  Well, maybe they're fella-lita's, but, whatever, they're spiders.  
They were allll over this area, just hanging on the top and bottom of these types of plants.  It was pretty sick when you think about all those spiders, but it was also strange...interesting...weird...and yucky.  As we walked the trails we saw a lot of them scurrying across the trail in front of us.  Don't even mention the fact that I'm sure there we plenty of them in the trees above us as we were walking unsuspectingly along. Just you never mind that! 

Here is a close up picture of one of the little fellers.

  Yuck to me, but "sooo cool" to the boys!

I also made a feeble attempt at photographing the children.  I gave up after several tries because it was hot, Emily had to go potty, and its not as if any of them were dressed for a nice picture.  Not to mention the fact that it is a 1 in a million and seven chance of getting all of them to look at me at the same time with a happy face!  If you ever come to visit us, and its not blazing hot or disgustingly humid, then expect a trip to this ONE of our Favorite Places!