Labor Day at Wolf Creek State Park

Last night I went to bed with the glorified thought that since my children have had a hard time getting up for school this past week that they would be exhausted after a long hard fun weekend and going to bed later would only allow them to sleep in...and ME TOO. However....Cody came in at 6:30 am. No worries....just hop in bed and we'll all fall back asleep. My sleep was short lived as Kelsey came in at 6:37 am wide awake and happy as could be. I love to snuggle with her so I couldn't be too disappointed and mad about not getting my extra sleep.

It wasn't long before we were up and playing in the front room. On Saturday Scott brought home some cups from soccer. Since then the kids have played with them daily. We decided to make a big tower. Kelsey was pretty excited that we used 55 cups for this monstrosity.


We were scheduled to go to Lake Shelbyville hiking today. Last time we were there we REALLY wanted to see this "Unusual Tree" that Wolf Creek State Park boasts of. However, it was raining then so we decided to go today.

We met Becca there and had a picnic. (Kelsey went to her friend, Desi's, house for her birthday party so I'm sad she didn't get to come have an extravagant day with us). She did make chocolate chip cookies early this morning with me though. All the boys could think about was cookies. Our lunch wasn't touched too much, but the cookies were devoured.


And off we went....


What a GREAT time! Despite having a rough time FINDING the trail, and traversing through knee high weeds, and dodging multiple spider webs in a row (I made it through 4 back to back before one got me in the head and I saw the spider fall out of my hair...THAT put me over the edge and I had to have Becca go first.)


We definitely took the LONG way around, but finally getting to the "Unusual Tree" was fabulous - to say the least! We climbed up on it and had a great time. Too bad the boys weren't there!


This tree looks like it is growing 'through' the other one. Becca and I decided that the one on the left must have fallen but not died. It landed on the tree on the right which was still growing...so they grew together. Maybe there can be a lesson in that somewhere????

The Jungle Book crawl ... or the Bear crawl ... up the tree.

Becca thinks she can't make it....hahaha! Not with me around!

She did it!!! Yeah!!!

Chance would have it that in all our previous traversing we actually passed the entrance to the trail...unbeknown to us, of course. As we walked out we realized it took only 5 minutes (instead of the spider web laden hour plus that we took getting there. We summoned the boys and headed back...they would HATE to miss THIS!

Jordan is wondering if going around that big limb is worth it....it was!

Our tree hugger! Spencer is the one that just climbed on up.

I'm really glad we went. It was a really neat tree to see and a fun hike also.

On our way out we stopped at the Horse Stables at Wolf Creek to see about some riding for the boys. Lucky us! They were there and open! The boys enjoyed themselves...well, Cody was a bit apprehensive, but had an ok time. The gift of "Miss Priss's" old shoe was the highlight for him.

Cody and Miss Priss

Spencer and Salty

Jordan and Ebony

And Cody's prized possession - making the ride worth it!

We got home with a lot of little chiggers or mites on us....tons of them. I was worried they might be ticks...little tiny crawling seed ticks. We scraped them off then showered and then scraped MORE off. YUCK! At least they weren't those ugly spiders and we found out they WEREN'T ticks. All is well....and we live to tell fun stories about all our adventures!

Fabulous Labor Day without too much actual laboring!!!