This morning I took the kiddos to First Landing State Park for a morning of hiking and a picnic lunch.  Thanks to Christine and Jake for our VA State park pass, we hiked 4 different trails this morning for a total of a little over 2 miles.  Alex did great and hiked the first 1.5 miles and only had to be carried for the very end.  The kids were excited to see Long Creek on our hike and look for ‘crabbies’ in the reeds and the Chesapeake Bay or ‘beach!!!’ after lunch where we saw some large washed up jellyfish.  Both of them carried their own water and kept a great pace!  I love my little hikers!

Today was warm for us so I pulled out all the stops to enjoy the outdoors before it gets cold again.  We started off playing at the park then went to the library for Brooke’s storytime.  After storytime we had a picnic lunch at the Arboretum then went for a little hike.  Unfortunately, we hadn’t hiked these trails since after the hurricane and a lot of the bridges were down and we counted 9 trees down which made us shorten our hike.  Afterward, everyone was still hungry so we headed to DQ for a little snack and back home to play bubbles, car, and bikes in the front before naptime.

It was time for our yearly tradition of going to the Polar Express with Kelli and Chase.  This time Alex came along.  They all had a fun time with cookies and cocoa and meeting Santa before taking the train.  And yes neither of them wanted anything to do with Santa so they both crowded for my lap.