here comes the sun!

Happy Easter!!!!! (pictures from today coming... soon)

Yesterday was absolutely lovely.

I had made plans to get together with my friends and go shopping downtown, but things changed a bit.

Last minute I invited the gang to come with me and my family to our favourite place.

You guessed it, the "cricket place", which right now has no crickets yet.

There was a bird show going on, but we wanted to enjoy the trails and other glorious sights first.

Because of the bird show(and holiday) there were WAY more people there than we had ever seen before.

The place has a totally different feel when you don't have it all to yourself.

It's still impossible not to have a blast though!

And I'm so glad I was able to share my new favourite place with my friends.

Right off the bat our little Bug Hunter spotted a turtle. He's had to change his prey for the seasons...

It was very exciting, and he just had to dive in and grab it!



It was just sitting there, and he reached out and grabbed it.

He's our fearless one.




But of course the Princess had to prove that if her little brother could handle it, she could too.





The Hunter with his prize!





I LOVE the red details on the shell!





This was the first flower I found. I was SO excited!




Scanning.





He leaves no log unturned.
This little Bug Finder means business.





The Baby is excited to point out all the wonderful things there are to see.



My friend pointed out this little flying jem, and I was able to get a couple glamour shots of this fabulous find.



I do want to invest in a more professional camera, but with the proper lighting and luck, I don't often have much to complain about with my little Canon Elf.

 If there is a pretty picture to be taken, I do have a tendency to follow the opportunity from tree to tree.
                          Especially if it's a pretty insect that happens to be a co-oporative model.



I'm really pleased with this photo.
It has a very artistic look. Almost as if it were a painting.



The Princess wanted to hold the butterfly so badly, so my friend broke off the little twig it landed on, and we didn't have to worry about touching the pretty wings, or having it land on her.




This fungus was growing on a fallen log.
Personally I think it's fabulous.




Someone had started building this awesome structure in amongst the trees and the kids just HAD to go check it out.




Beaver handiwork.



The Princess found the beaver marks to be pretty impressive.



Since it was such a lovely sunny day the turtles were all out enjoying some wonderful golden rays.



This is the same turtle that is in the picture above. The Little Hunter tried to grab it, but since it wasn't dead... it was able to get away.



Two turtles on a log!




Our little friend with his magnifying glass that he got from our Little Bug Finder's birthday party(OUR LITTLE GUY IS
FIVE! Pictures of that coming soon)




Peek-a-Boo!




 After visiting the nature area SO many times, my friends and I just found this part yesterday. We were trying to figure out what fantasy forest it looks like... somewhere from the Lord of the Rings? Narnia? Nope.
Definitely Terabithia.
It is absolutely incredible!






Our Little Frog Finder exploring Terabithia.



This Baby is so easy to take pictures of!
His face just screams, DOCUMENT MY CUTENESS NOW!



Some pretty red buds that were along the edge of the trail.



Everyone else walks on the boardwalk... but not the Little Adventurer.

Here my little friend is telling me about his "red rain boots that are for splashing in the wet".



More signs of Spring!





Fresh beaver bites!




Mom didn't know what this was... but she thought pulling it apart was a good idea.




My friend thought we were only going to be walking on the paved streets of downtown...





We finally went to see the bird show.
This is a Turkey Vulture, one of the birds with the best sense of smell.




This is a baby horned owl! It's only 7-weeks-old, and the cutest ball of fluff ever.




The Little Hunter presented me with this snail... so I thought it was worth photographing.



A GREAT BALD EAGLE!

Yeah, the bird show was still going on, but I found time to take a couple more shots.

So content with his find.