Get Outdoors Day!

Hey everyone!

Do you know what today is?
National Get Outdoors Day!!
Some local organizations put together an event at the Peavy Arboretum to celebrate the day. It included guided hikes, fishing, and other things.

When we got to the Arboretum, there were so many cars that we had to go to the overflow parking lot and wait for the shuttle to come by and get us. That gave us ample time to wander through the field by the lot, and even stumble upon the local "Society for Creative Anachronism" dueling with lances and shields and such!
What a treat!!

It was so beautiful -- not a cloud in the sky, wildflowers all over, and of course my children :)

The Dashiell Duo~

Bouquet of wildflowers, anybody? 

At the Arboretum, we took a long walk through the forest and it was just beautiful. William was a bit of a handful because he should've been asleep but wasn't, and he was determined to walk even though it meant off-path or super meandering. Oy ve, so we tried to hold him as much as we could.

Reshaping Daddy's face, heh :P

At Cronemiller Lake, they had poles and bait available for the kiddos so Ella got to have her second fishing experience ever! It was much more "real" than the Hatchery one, so even after casting and reeling and waiting for 20 minutes...we got no bites, so no fish.

She's becoming a natural~?

Still, it was a good time. Just walking together as a family and enjoying the rich forest all around us felt so good for the soul... It's kind of unsettling how few and far between such experiences can be. I mean, I get the kids "out" but that mainly means manicured parks or along the sidewalks and such...but I need to make a conscious effort to bring them into nature more. Hopefully it will be happening more this summer what with traveling to campsites in the camper. We're even thinking of buying a set of fishing rods/tackle for ourselves so we can catch more of our own meals while we're out and about. Mm-hm!

Anyway, after that, we returned home to welcome Ella's good friend Clara who'd be spending the rest of the day with us. We hit up this "Summer Celebration" event put on at the Osborn Aquatic Center -- it was a completely free event, that included food from local restaurants, caricatures, massages, pet adoption, and more!
We mainly stuck to the shallow water on behalf of the kids, and got to meet some friends there too :)

Happy children~

They had an intern going around taking high-quality photos - yay!

And that just about wraps up our day.
Lots of fun in the sun, for sure!
How did you spend National Get Outdoors Day?
I hope you had a good one and a good rest of the weekend in store as well.
Until next time, take care and Happy Get Outdoors Day!!