Another Weekend, Another Hike

The weather is beautiful right now so we're trying to make the most of the outdoors before it becomes brutally hot and buggy again, so Saturday we headed out to another state park for a hike.

 (I love Kellen's face in this one!)

We didn't have much of a plan in mind and when we saw that the shortest loop on the map was 5.3 miles Logan assured me that as long as we kept walking (and didn't stop at every leaf and bug) it wouldn't be that bad, so off we went.

(finding the orange trail)

The hike went through a lot of different areas: some very sandy and surrounded by palms, 

Some covered in pine needles,





some that felt much more like a northern forest in the fall 

and a huge area that must have had a controlled burn somewhat recently because it still smelled like something was burning.


Check out this super cool burned up palm tree/bush - I swear it looks like a dragon or sea monster!

We saw a few cool critters, but thanks to our noisy kids most we're long gone by the time we got anywhere close.

(you can see the snake's head under the stick in the bottom right if you look really close)

     

Turns out 5.3 miles is a VERY long hike with four small kids and Logan and I were each carrying 2 kids for a large part of it!  I am super tired and sore.

(still smiling at this point)

Kellen finally fell asleep but may have lost an eyeball!

Here are my feet after thinking that it would be safe to wear flip flops on a hike short enough for little ones to survive.