Go take a hike!

The first day of Spring brought us some rather summer-like weather,

so we spent most of the weekend outside enjoying every moment of it.

In Friday's post, I said that I was planning to take the kids on a hike and hike we did.

We loved that it was a very rustic trail with lots of steep climbs and makeshift bridges.

The kids and I have been studying survival skills in our science class.

Fortunately, we didn't need to use any of our new skills, 

but it gave us a chance to discuss what we've learned.

The flooded area reminded us that making camp too close to a river bed could be dangerous
And Julia recalled how to get yourself unstuck from muddy swamps.
I was pleased that she remembered, but even more pleased that she didn't feel the need to demonstrate this skill.

The hike wasn't terribly strenuous, but without even realizing it,

we went from the river's banks to an overlook high above the river.

This bridge was the one "real" bridge there,
most of them were just four or five wood planks stuck together.
Grant was disappointed that they were even that wide,
I think he would have preferred to have to balance across just one 2x6
or even better... a fallen log.

I guess my version of rustic differs a bit from his version.

We found remnants of fall still clinging to the trees.

Now... this may not bother you or me, but for Grant,
who's main goal over Thanksgiving was to remove all the leaves of of this tree,
all these leftover leaves were quite annoying.

I think that the new Spring buds will push away all the dead leaves soon enough.

We had our first picnic of the year!
Grant had been saving the sausage for the first day of Spring
and we were more than happy to help him celebrate by eating it with him.

It was so good, we ate the leftovers for dinner that night.

There were some old buildings on the property,
the ruins of an old coach house and granary,
that provided us with some picture taking opportunities.

Unfortunately, it was noon when the photos were taken, so the light was not great,
but that just gave me a chance to play around with some photo editing.
Cool, huh?

Now, I know not everyone had summer weather this weekend
(yeah, I'm talking to you, Alita),
but what did you do on this first weekend of Spring?