All the trees were there...

Yesterday, our family made a day trip to the redwoods. While we did many of the same things we do every time we visit the Big Trees state park, we also tried some new things and visited new locations within the park.

Driving all the way through the state park we arrived at a parking area near Beaver Creek. When we first brought the girls down to the creek Amelia seemed unimpressed. In fact, she kept trying to sneak away and head back into the woods. (When Amelia wants to leave, she'll cup her hand to her mouth and whisper, "I'll be right back.")

Once the girls walked a few feet down the creek they found it a bit more interesting. And when dad showed the girls how he could get a stone to skip across the water they became excited. Both of the girls couldn't wait to grab rocks of their own to toss into the pool. Amelia was actually pretty good at skipping stones - she did a better job than mommy did, anyway!

After several minutes of skipping rocks, daddy thought the girls might like to play "Poohsticks" - just like Winnie the Pooh and his friends do in A Day for Eeyore. The girls were very excited to play Poohsticks and had a terrific time. As usual, it was difficult to drag the girls away when they were having such a nice time, but there were other things to see and do.

So we traveled on to our more common haunt in the park where around 80 years ago some fool thought it a good idea to fell the largest tree ever seen so it could tour America. Amelia had a great time chasing squirrels here while Diana showed off a pine cone she had found on the ground (she even held her find out to show a stranger telling him that she had found a pine cone).

One again, getting the girls back to the car was difficult, but we got them aboard the Big Red Car in time to visit a nearby playground. This particular playground has one of Amelia's very favorite slides. Amelia and some of her new friends had a great time playing with Amelia's big, red, bouncy ball while Diana had a great time playing with daddy on the swings.

On our way home the girls and I shared a cold pasta salad and a plate of vegetables. Diana fell asleep on the road, but Amelia was awake until we arrived home. The girls went to bed much later than usual, but everyone had a terrific time.

As a funny aside, whenever I spend time with Diana before bed I always asked her if she had fun that day. Almost every night, without fail, Diana says that she had fun "cooking cupcakes." Tonight I promised her that we would buy more cupcake mix. I guess that means I'm in for another mess a bit more anxiety in the kitchen in the near future.

Lisa