Whitney this weekend

This weekend Emma and I headed off for Whitney state park to take a walk and look at nature.
It's not one of those super charged state forests with drive by nature and a gift shop. It's "just" a forest with lots of nature.

For reference you can find more information about Whitney state forest here: http://www.stateparks.com/whitney.html.

As we are just getting out of winter (hopefully) the trees doesn't have leaves just yet. So one thing we are doing is walking around trying to find shapes in nature. This is mostly trees that are in funny shapes or look like something else.

First up is our Cinderella castle. It takes a little time but after a while it actually makes sense ;-)



Next was a pile of branches that made it look like a tent so we had to look closer at that to see if there were any animals hiding in there. Not too many today...



We all know how trees look but we found that there are more than one color. Here is a little cheese wood...



Hopefully we will have the birds back pretty soon and starting to build their nests. We checked this bird house but nobody in there just yet. oh yeah I did see the bottom being open so it was safe to let Emma check it. She did check it by sticking her finger in there and nobody bit her so no birds in that one...



What we did find plenty of was different type of fungus. Not the most interesting find in your house but out in nature it can be pretty cool ;-)



This one I didn't let Emma walk up to and stick her finger into. She sure would have but as I told here we are not really sure who lives in there and they might not like getting her finger in their face.



A little more fungus at the end of a log.



With a little imagination here is a snake climbing a tree...



Whitney has a little stream running through it too. We usually go on the main path which has a road that goes over the stream. Going on the small paths Emma took us on today we had to cross it twice... We didn't slip and didn't get wet :-)



This is one of the fantasy animals. One arm a couple of antennas, eyes and a mouth.



Along the path we spotted small red "markers". We started counting but after the first 5 minutes that wasn't fun anymore ;-)



Here is a guy on a swing... obvious right?



Here is the branch swing that Emma and Mom was sitting on last time and we got a photo of them hanging somewhere in the house.



I spotted this thingie in the middle of the woods... haven't got a clue as to what it is though...



Spring must be getting pretty close. There were quite a few butterflies around which I really didn't expect with the snow being here just this past week. But here it is...



Venturing back to the truck we had seen tracks from horse shoes so we knew that some people would ride the horses in the woods. Emma was excited by the thought of it. Then we were lucky enough to actually see horses riding through the woods just before leaving.



ohh yeah and just as we were leaving we saw a couple of big birds. Yep they sure ain't pretty...



As you can see we like heading out to Whitney state forest even though it's "only" 147 acre. It's pretty close to us and it is nice and relaxing just taking a walk.

Getting pine cones

Over the weekend we were talking about doing some art work/projects at home and would need some pine cones. Rather than raiding the neighbors back yard... I took Emma out to the forest for a walk and see what we might find (yeah this is where we went to home depot on the way home and got pooh on our lawn... read more).



So we are walking along to see what we can find. As you may have heard Emma can be quite a big talker. So as we heard a woodpecker I am (being really clever) saying "hey Emma... maybe if we are really quite we can hear different birds and maybe even see some"
Sooo we look around for birdies...



Look dad there is a big stick. I can't lift that one but I can sit on it...
Yep that would be Emma....
Finding another stick that she could lift she was plowing the path. It is supposed to be a path for the ants to use... hmm yeah... she was occupied doing that for quite some time...



Finally we have walked for a good bit and we are starting to get ready to see the truck and head off to home depot.
On the "home-stretch" we noticed the lack of birds and Emma had a few quick questions:

Emma: Dad, where are all the birds?
Me: They are around. They just like to hide and fly around.
Emma: Dad, where do the birds fly to?
Me: ehh many of them fly down south for the winter where it's warmer.
Emma: Dad, why do birds fly down south for the winter?
Me: well... you know it's warmer and some birds don't like the cold weather.
Emma: nooooooo it's because it's to far to walk!!!

yeah she got me on that one. She actually told a joke and fit it in perfectly and I didn't see that one coming....

End of the weekend :-(

So it's Sunday night and the end of the weekend.

Saturday it was raining and Sunday we got a little shopping done. Amongst all of it there was a few funny moments. And yeah Emma was the source of them ;-) As some of you may know (yeah not really a big secret) I do a bit of photography. And I just printed a few of the two kiddos on canvas to try something new and different. So as Emma was standing there looking at it I asked "sooo should we sell it?". Kids have a sometimes different view so being asked that question Emma started laughing and once done "nooo we can't sell the picture" quickly followed by "you can't sell pictures... that's silly..." hmm yeah okei... moving on... As we were going through Kohls shopping Emma was quite full of energy (hmm). So as I am sure many parents have tried she was getting "the look"... Emma tilted her head and commented with a "and what's that look for???" She also got a new word. Not that she really understands it but it does seem to hit the spot a certain times. Such as when I want her to do something and she puts her hand on the hip and does that girls head tilting thing saying "let's compromise..." I'm thinking come on now... you are 4 years old... ahh well. As I mentioned it was raining Saturday so we did watch a couple of movies. One of them (repeated a couple of times) was Winnie the Pooh. I know it may be slightly strange but I came to thinking. If I was a pooh character which would I be... I think it would probably be Rabbit. You know there has to be a plan for everything to be followed strictly (not that that ever happens... but still). How about you? If you were a Pooh character which would you be?

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ohh yeah here is one of the shots from the impromptu studio session with the kiddos ;-)



Have a great start on the week everyone :-)