Winter Nature Walk

This morning, I took the kids out to Lake Arrowhead for a winter nature walk. Despite the temperature (mid-30s), it was very pleasant, and we collected plenty of rocks (Ginny, the geologist), sticks, pine cones and needles, and acorn and walnut parts for our seasonal shelf. I actually found it so pleasant that the kids didn't complain about the walk (a big improvement over walks in the summer heat).

We listened for nature sounds (like woodpeckers, mystery chirping birds, geese honking, dogs barking, some people yelling in the distance, and I think I even heard a frog chirping--that or a really strange-sounding bird!). With Ginny, I just had to watch with the water and tell her and Lily that they could get sick if they got into the water when it's this cold. A.J. was happy to reinforce this by throwing out words like "hypothermia" and such. ;)

I got a lot of "Mom, take a picture of this!" I was happy to oblige. A.J. even got a shot of me with the girls.

A.J. is going to do his history with Dad and work on his Restaurant Rush wiki, too, later while I am working. All in all a nice day so far.