More hiking, more outdoors

To come home to a bouquet of flowers, saying happy first year, with a great smile, really made me feel great.
We had Matthew and Jessica stay overnight, while their parents celebrated St. Paddy's with friends.  We made tacos and guacamole, which, made by M, is Jessica's favorite.  We rushed, since we also decided to go to the movies and see 'The Lorax'.  What a good idea, to take the kids to the movies (and may I take a moment to complain how expensive it is to go to the movies?!), and feed them any treat they want?  They loved it!
Sunday we had a hike on the agenda.  So off we went, taking a marked trail to the Hawk Watch.  Jessica was our fearless leader, checking for the marks and marching us at a clip we poor old people could barely keep up with.
At a couple of points in the hike she even carried a backpack!

 At Hawk Watch the kids put bird seeds on their hands and patiently waited for birds to come get food.  Oh, and this is in the middle of the woods, not a place where you'd expect birds to land on your hand.

 One has to be very fast with the camera to catch a bird landing on a hand,  and the kids were so good at waiting!  A bird landed on Jessica's hand, but she wasn't amused, she wanted to know if we saw it's claws!

But Matthew was lucky.  A chickadee (and if you think it's another bird, please let me know), landed on his hand several times!  He was thrilled.  As was the photographer, M, who said he pressed the shutter when he saw the bird leaving the tree - a great shot!

 And yes, we made a little fire.  And grilled hot dogs.  How cool is that for a nine-year-old?  The kids loved it.  As did we!  I can't wait for more adventures in the woods...

 By the beaver den...  And yes, we were waiting for them to fall in....