Shaw Nature Reserve

We use our membership to MoBot all the time.  It also includes the Butterfly House, which we hit several times a year, as well as Shaw Nature Reserve, which we had never done.  I knew it was more hiking and seemed to be less little kid friendly, so I had kind of been avoiding it.  We headed out today, though, because I thought the boys were old enough, and they did great! 
It is such a beautiful place, no big surprise there.  I texted Dad to see if he wanted to join us since I knew Dena was out of town, so he had fun hiking and looking at stuff with us as well.  The boys really loved him being there because he brought beef jerky and a Payday (did I want any?  No, Daddy, thanks...that's boy food!). 
We played in the Nature Classroom for a bit, then did a short hike.  We jumped in the car and headed to another location for another quick look around at a different site.  The kids liked it, and I'm not going to lie, I have fun looking at God's work with them...pointing out different things, making them observe...yes, I am still a science teacher!  ;)
This particular picture was from MoBot on Friday.  They got to this point, all climbed up, and said, "Mom, take our picture!".  I apparently take pictures at this spot a lot! 

 

Here are the pictures from SNR: 

 

 

 

 

This was a cool spot...you could use long-ish pieces of wood type stuff to build a roof across a house type thing...ok, my words don't really describe it. 

 

 

 

Maybe someday I'll get a picture of all 4 of them looking normal and smiling together.  Probably no time soon.   

 

Here Daddy had to hold N's head just to make him look at me!  

I love this sweet face.  L has the absolute best facial expressions.   

 

 

The boys seriously about gave me a heart attack playing along here.  They all wanted to walk on the wall, and below was just muck and mud and water.  Then they wanted to throw stuff in, and I could just see them wobbling (and worried that they would go in after it).   

Z, thank you very much, decided to grab a stick and dig around in the mud. 

And C was too close and the mud got flung on him.  Nice game, Z. 

Why on earth do boys have to play in the water with sticks?!

We had a great time on a beautiful day.  I will make sure to visit there again :)