Just the 3 of Us...

Oh, we had SO MUCH FUN yesterday on our 5 hour nature... um.... experience. (We actually were in the car most of the time and then just walked around a little bit so I can hardly call it a "hike")

I thought I'd start with some of the photos my husband's aunt. She's a professional photographer in that she sells some of her work and has even had at least one show. What amazed me most as I looked through her photos, besides how good they were, is that she often only takes one shot of something! If I want to make sure I'm going to get a good shot, I might take a dozen. I'll have to ask her how she knows she's got "the" shot.

This first photos is of some water striders. I remember one of you studied these lately, and I'd love to have a link to your post! I was amazed at how well this photo turned out because we were up on a pretty high bridge.

There is actually graffiti on these rocks, but the formations were so beautiful. And, I actually studied geology once and yet I'm not sure what these rocks are... maybe we'll study some rocks this summer.

We all took turns taking photos through the whole in the side of this hill. I know you don't see photos of me very often, so yep! That's me!

I grew up in Oklahoma and had no idea we had waterfalls like this there! This waterfall is 77 feet tall! Kind of reminds us of Hawaii...

One of our coolest "finds"... we found TONS of tadpoles in various pools of water, and then came upon these 2 toads... There was a string of eggs behind them and I remembered how Robin at martinzoo had recently posted about the difference between frog & toad eggs. If we lived closer, I would have scooped some up to watch.

I actually went to college near here and during our geology class, we took a field trip out here. I couldn't remember how to get here, so I was glad "my" aunt was familiar with it and asked if we wanted to go see it! There are little pools of water etched into the hard rock. And, the water just flows lightly over the country road you drive on. My geology teacher told me the pools were created by rocks that somehow got "stuck" and swirled round and round and etched these pools. This is where we found the tadpoles & toads.

The first site when we drove up to the small pools of water were LOTS of these blue butterflies! Probably 40-50. They were sitting in groups and I love the photo my aunt took of this one near Alexandra's foot.

My aunt noticed Alexandra in the rearview mirror and took this cute shot. As we drove slowly along the country road, Alexandra kept yelling "stop!" whenever she saw something she wanted to photograph. And, yes, that is partly why our trip ended up lasting 5 GREAT hours.

Now, some photos by me.... here are TONS of tadpoles in one of the pools!

Here's my close up shot of the toads. I like how the toads are in view, but think my aunt's are more artistic.

I loved how these turkey vultures seemed to be playing king of the hill.

This is one of Alexandra's best finds... she actually saw this lizard as we were driving down the country road! It was about 10 inches long. I'm still working on an ID.

Here's Alexandra taking photos of the tadpoles.

Here are some of the small "waterfalls" where the pools of water formed. I wish I would have taken a shot where you could see where the road runs.

After our 2 hikes (the pools of water and the waterfall), we let Alexandra play at a park in the state park. Then, we went and got some lunch at 3:30 pm. (We had eaten some snacks.) We stopped at a little pizza place and got to play air hockey and fuz ball. And, the pizza was delicious! What a great day. :-)