A Great Day for a Hike

Peter and I had a wonderful time at Mendon Ponds Park on Saturday - it was a "warm" day and perfect for an early spring hike.  The trails were a bit challenging and seemed to either be covered with leftover ice or thick mud, but we had fun navigating through it all.  Back before kids =), taking hikes was one of our favorite things to do together.  We have not done it very much since having kids and are hoping to do it more, now that they are all old enough to come along.  This time though, we were on our own - our good friends, the Maas Family, had our kids for the morning.  We are so thankful for them!  It was fun to have a "date night" in the morning and to know our kids were having a great time with their friends.  

We took the 2.7 mile hike around Quaker Pond.  There were several look-out points - this was one of them. The hike was very level and easy - we will definitely return with our kids sometime this summer.  Here is a link to the park map is you are ever interested in going to this great park.

http://www.monroecounty.gov/Image/MendonPark.pdf 

My favorite quote from the day - Peter said, "What is that I smell?..... I think it is nature!" 

This spot on the trail had some VERY tall grass - Peter thought it was at least 9 feet tall!  We felt like Moses parting the Red Sea =)!

Peter had heard that the chickadees in the park are very friendly and are always looking for food =)!  He just put his hand out and one came looking...

Let the sillies begin!

For Valentine's Day this year, Heidi & I made "cards" for her school friends out of lollipops and craft foam.  When the lollipop is in your mouth, it gives you big pink lips or a twirly mustache! 

A future look, perhaps??

At our house, all of the holidays run together... I try to hide away the Halloween costumes, but they always seem to find them!

Kip loves being silly!

Kip's 4th Birthday Party Pictures

Make a Smilebox slideshow

Family Time on Fourth Lake

Every Columbus Day Weekend, we head to the Adirondacks.  Usually we stay in Old Forge, but this year we rented a cabin on Fourth Lake, half way in between Old Forge and Inlet.  For the second year in a row, we found our rental through this website, Adirondack By Owner Website,

We had a fantastic weekend!  Check out the slide show below and roll your cursor over to see captions.

Fall Harvest Festival

A few weeks ago we attended the Fall Harvest Festival at the Helmer Nature Center, here in Irondequoit. (Helmer Nature Center Website )  This was our first year attending, but I think we will go every year from now on.  Here are Heidi, Derek & Kip enjoying the live music.

I am a fan of folk music and this friendly banjo player set a wonderful atmosphere for the day.

Waiting for our turn on the hay ride.

Heidi getting her face painted.

There were so many activities for the kids to choose from.  Of course we had to buy tickets to participate, but we tried to pick out the best and then we can try the rest next year (like riding the ponies!)