Got Nature?

We've finally had some decent weather and after a wonderful Stake Conference today we decided we should go for a walk through our local nature park. Tualatin Hills Nature Park is a wonderful place to go with the kids to teach them a love of nature. Right now is a great time to go, everything is growing and blooming and the mosquitos aren't out yet :) I was surprised to see how much fun the kids were having today. Usually we go and they don't pay much attention to the wonders around them unless we point them out. Nathaniel, Jonathan, and Elizabeth pointed out quite a bit to us and were asking questions. It was so neat to see them developing their own love of nature. They are old enough to learn the names of things now so after teaching them a few of the trees and flowers they would point them out to us as we walked. We got to count the rings on some of the downed trees. Seth got to eat a pinecone :) We even saw a gartner snake. It freaked the kids out for a sec but they got over it and followed it as far at they could. We were surprised at how warm it was in there, everyone was soon stripping off coats and chugging down their water. All in all a good hike. Not too much complaining about sore legs and feet this time around.

Tillium, one of my favorite flowers in the park.

Columbine

Not sure what this one is but it's a beautiful flower. Will have to look it up.