visit to the reptile zoo

Can you tell we love the reptile zoo?  It is easy to learn a lot about an animal by simply observing it. 

the rocky beach

We went to the beach with Grandma & cousins.  Since we have been to this beach before the kids knew where to look to find crabs and starfish.  They loved being the experts by showing their cousins around.

pioneer day

We went to a Pioneer Day Fair. It was awesome.  You had to do different "chores" in order to earn money for supper.  Archery, hammering & candle making were just a few of the many chores we did.  The kids enjoyed learning about people from a "long long long time ago" in such a fun way.

dogsitting

I think you can learn a lot from taking care of an animal.  We have a leopard gecko and a hamster, but they are not as demanding as a dog.  Demanding or not the kids loved the dog!  They fed it, scooped poop, played with it, "put it to sleep", walked it, everything.  They were so responsible. 

Put on your hiking shoes

Not only do I feel it is important to get into nature, but I feel it is important to exercise.   Hiking fulfills both.  Today we hiked PooPoo Point (where paragliders take off) with grandpa and grandma.  It was a fairly steep incline for the 2 miles up, but we made it!



be observant

Everyone is surrounded by some form of nature.  Even within big cities you cannot escape from the bugs, crows, etc.  I think it is important we slow down and take time to observe what is going on in the world around us.  Kids are so good at this.  Many think it is classified kids are easily distracted, but maybe it is the adults that are to distracted to notice what is really important.  Anyway, Tabor notices all sorts of bugs.  He found one digging holes into the ground. 

shelling peas

 

 These peas are from our garden. Pepper has a knack for shelling peas, she is incredibly fast.

 

cherry picking

my parents moved into a new house 2 years ago.  on the property were two cherry trees.  we went over to pick some to make cherry pie.  There were plenty of cherries on there, but they were water logged and had ants all over them.  We picked several for the sake of picking but did not make the pie.  At least we learnt the importance of taking care of your tree and how dependent farmers are on the weather! 

Waterton Glacier Park

Waterton is the perfect place to explore nature.  Not only are you surrounded by the beauty of the scenery, but also by animals.  In the tree outside our cabin was a family of great horned owls (fledglings are pictured above).  We had Ground squirrels, chipmunks and deer walk around constantly.  Tabor was thrilled to find a fawn sleeping in the grass.  I was thrilled its mother did not kick us.  And we had three different bear encounters.  Twice we saw the bears a ways up a mountain.  While we drove up to red rock canyon we saw a bear not 20 feet from us.  Good thing we were in the car!  What a neat experience for the kids! 

The flowers there were beautiful and we broadened the amount of flowers we are able to name (Indian Paint Brush flower pictured above). The kids picked our main focus... baby animals.  It was easy with the amount of fledgling/owlet, cubs, pups, fawns etc. around