It must be summer

Sorry for lagging behind on the blog posts lately. It's just that we've finally got some good weather (two-day stretch of sun, which is a big deal this summer) and I've got a ton of work and the kids are all here looking for something fun to do.

Yesterday we headed to Five Rivers Environmental Center (only about three miles away from our house) to hike and look at the flowers and visit the owl and, finally, to have the picnic lunch that Chiara has been asking for since school let out in June.

Check out that beautiful lily pond above, and below. It was teeming with frogs (you can see a bright green one in the photo below) and big fat tadpoles just waiting to be frogs.

Then we headed inside to see Aires the one-winged owl and the bee hive, which was buzzing with activity. No birds, though. They can't feed them during the summer for fear it will bring the bears around. Finally we took a half-mile hike around Beaver Trail, where we spied a heron flying across the pond and nabbing a fish for lunch and, as we neared the end of the trail, at least a dozen turtles, including one big snapping turtle that Chiara declared was the mama.

We really should do this sort of thing more often.