Land and Sea ...

What a fantastic weekend! There's not many opportunites in October to go for hike through the fall foliage then go cool off by splashing in the lake! With the exception of a few required duties, we declared this weekend to be two days of play - and play we did!

While Corey helped out some of our elderly neighbors by trimming their tree limbs, the boys and I had our own tree adventure by doing some hiking through the trees. We found this "backwoods trail" and it was just perfect for our adventure!

There were two trails that split in different directions, since we got a little late start I decided we should take the shorter one as it was supposed to take approximately 25-30 minutes to hike. Well, the boys were so excited we ended up running most of this trail and were done in 8 minutes!

Pausing to take a breath and a photo = )

This was my favorite snapshot of the day!



Since we finished the first trail so quickly, we went ahead and ventured onto the second trail as well. This one was supposed to take 40-45 minutes ... it took us 18. We were definitely getting our exercise! In this pic the boys were searching for the sneaky ninjas there were sure were hiding in the trees = )

After the hike, the boys were ready to see some water, so we found our way to the shoreline. Gage claimed this area as his own "Gager Ocean" where he was the king! Such an imagination = )

Here the boys really enjoyed finding interesting rocks and seashells. With the water being so low, we even found several fully intact clam shells with their inhabitants still inside!

Just imagining the possibilities!

A little brotherly love at the lake = )

Here the boys invented the game, "SharkWave" where they tried to jump all of the incoming waves. So much energy!

An opening in the clouds - just thought it was pretty = )

So the boys and I had so much fun at the lake, we decided we needed to bring daddy back the next day to enjoy the nature with us! So, after church that is just what we did! Here's the boys heading out to where the sand meets the sea ...

More "SharkWave"

I tried their game, too ... but we won't share that silly picture, so here's a pose instead = )

Corey and I - I love how this includes the boys frolicking in the background. Perfect!

That group of trees in the distance is a little island that Corey and I used to visit with friends via boat - way back before the kiddos. Now the lake is down so much you can walk to the used-to-be-island via this sandbar. Crazy.

We stayed and soaked up the October sun for hours, the kiddos did not want to leave - and neither did we! There is just something so refreshing and peaceful about listening to the sounds of the beach - the crashing waves, the light breeze, the chattering birds.  After all of the rush-rush of our schedules lately, this little nature break over the last two days was exactly what we needed to relax and recharge. So thankful for this peaceful weekend!