Outdoor Hour Challenge #10 Picnic

Last week we took the children out to Cedar Valley where John grew up. We had a picnic up at the rodeo grounds. John spent many, many days and nights here playing with his friends. After our sandwiches were finished we hiked a little more than a mile up behind the rodeo grounds. It was so peaceful! The scrub oak was beginning to change colors and the little ones had so much fun!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

Two weeks ago we took the children up to Strawberry Reservoir to the visitors center. The kokanee salmon were spawning and we wanted the children to get a chance to see them. Kokanee salmon are fresh water salmon and silver when they are young. When the salmon are mature and ready to spawn they turn red and green. We went up on a Thursday and it was cold! The wind was blowing and there was a slight skiff of snow. Luckily for us that meant that nobody else was up there. We really do not like crowds. We knew we it was pretty late in the season but apparently it was the last day. The Fish and Game wardens were up there and one of them came over and started telling us all about what they were doing and how the fish were faring. It was so much fun! We asked all kinds of questions and had a blast. Thank you to the lovely Fish and Game department.

It was absolutely beautiful up there! I took a bunch of terrific pictures:






















Jack's picture of the salmon:


Christy's picture of the salmon:


Toby's picture of the salmon:


Hannah's picture of the river and salmon:

Outdoor Hour Challenge #2

We did the second challenge today and enjoyed being still and listening. Lots of giggling was heard as we used our words to describe what we heard. Hannah made a little home for bugs in her wagon.




After our nature time John and the children played basket ball and then soccer. I picked up a couple of pizzas and we ate dinner outside in the shade. The clouds started rolling in and the wind picked up. As I was bathing Hannah it started raining. I LOVE the rain!

John read the last few chapters of Robinson Crusoe to the children while I showered and had some time to my self.

The Outdoor Hour Challenge #1

John had the day off today and we took the children to a wetland preserve park. These are some of the neat things we saw.