Construction

 There was some road crews working in our neighborhood and Malcolm wanted to watch them.  We went outside to see what they were doing and how the machines worked.  The men were so great though!  The foreman noticed us watching and came over to talk to Malcolm.  He posed for a picture with him and then let Malcolm sit in one of the machines.  He was thrilled!

Laguna Coast - Feb 23rd

 'Hiking' at Laguna Coast.  Allie has gotten to the age where she really wants to explore her surroundings, deeply.  So she will walk for a few feet, get intrigued by something, sit, and won't budge for a long time.  So our 'hike' didn't go very far.  In most of the pictures you can still see the parking lot.  But the kids had fun digging rocks up from the trail and we loved just getting outside.  Although there aren't any animal pictures this time around, I have some great shots of Malcolm which are few and far between so enjoy!

"Can we keep walking now?"

Down the trail.

Malcolm takes some pictures!

Digging with his finger, annoyed Mom told him to look up.

What do rocks taste like?

Where the trail would have lead, if we had walked.

Look, a bench!

Cuddle time.

And back to the car.

Oak Canyon

Yesterday was nature study day and, while I haven't posted in awhile I wanted to try and post at least nature study again.  Maybe I'll go back and add some of our bigger trips in as well.

Oak Canyon was a beautiful park and hardly anyone was there.  Although I've been told if you go during the summer they have summer programs where the park is just packed in the mornings with kids.

We walked along the main trail past many little creeks and beautiful oak trees.  Malcolm was running ahead most of the time and when he was near, was just a blur so I don't have many photos of him.  Allie is asserting her new found independence by insisting she walk by herself as much as possible.  I think in the future I will just forgo the carrier and let her ride on my head when we need to do a quick catch up with the group.  She had so much fun exploring the dirt, leaves, and acorns all around her though and I love giving her this opportunity to explore the world around her. 

There was plenty of rock climbing, stream crossing, and tree climbing going on for the bigger kids.  And when we took a break at the end to do our journaling the kids had a blast just playing together.  The small stage was the perfect place for the kids to put on an impromptu dance show, an action scene with stick guns 'booming', or just pretending to be babies crawling around.  We had so much fun.


So, of course, here's a lot of pictures!

There were streams EVERYWHERE which is hard to find here.

Wood ducks, male and female.

I just love tiny waterfalls.

Exploring her world, looking over the bridge at the water.

Break for lunch and cute smiles!

Birds nest in the tree above us while we stopped for lunch.

Just couldn't resist that awesome smile.

Playing peek-a-boo on stage.

The big girls are tickling the baby!

Trying to climb and keep up!

Climbing on rocks at one of the streams.