Friday Afternoon

Today we went to Fountain Creek Nature Center. Fountain is a little city that's just south of the Springs and it only took us about 15 minutes to get there. The Nature Center is a nice little building with representations of some of the wildlife that lives in the area - some things are in glass cases and others are tactile so the kids can get a feel for what actually lives there. The younger kids really liked it. After about 20 minutes in the Nature Center, we decided to go for a walk on the trails in the Nature Preserve. The day was beautiful - upper 50s - and we spent an hour and a half just walking along the paths and watching the ducks and geese that inhabit the marshy areas, ponds, and Fountain Creek. One of the first things we experienced was 'star sticks'. JED got great pleasure in showing his entire family what these are as he came to the Nature Center last year on a field trip.

If you break open the sticks at the right place you are rewarded with a center that's in the shape of a star.The kids searched for 'star sticks' underneath this tree:

This tree is over 20 feet around and five stories high. It was quite impressive.

We continued on down the path and the two youngest ones wanted to become the 'leaders' (just in case we got 'lost'). Here are our fearless leaders:

Don't they just make your heart MELT??? I always want to remember them this way - they truly are best friends.

Spring is finally peeking its way through the brown... it's slow in coming as we are very, very, very dry here in Colorado. The brilliant green of the ferns along the riverbank was just astounding. The pictures don't even do it justice.

I captured these pictures as we continued to meander down the walking path.

I think it captures the simple, pure love between a father and his daughters. It makes me believe that there really is some good in this world.

We finished off our afternoon with a little time at a park that is just off the path. The kids (yes, ALL of them) enjoyed running around and acting goofy.

Yes, that is CED running between the swings as her siblings went up and down. I kept waiting for her to get whacked. I probably would've laughed. I know that's mean, but if you're crazy enough to run in between swings...

We ended the evening with pizza (Free! From Dominos! CED won a few free pizzas at school - score!) and two movies - The Town and The Fighter. Our evenings of family movies continue. Hope you enjoyed your Friday. We did.