Moms Monday

On the first day of spring break we headed to St. Edward State park to go for a hike.

{one of our favorite past times}

 We stopped to check out the black slugs

 The trees and sky were just beautiful! 

 We had to jump over every ditch

 I can't believe my son is so grown up!

{and cute I might add}

 We took one of the more challenging hikes and headed to Lake Washington

 Shilo and True got as close to the water as they could

 Chastin is such a  climber!

 Coaxing the birds to come to her

 What a tease! We didn't have any food for them, but they just kept coming to check:)

 It was a beautiful day!

 I was just waiting for him to fall in and have to finish the hike all covered in stinky green lake water!

But alas! He was so skillfully balanced that  he looked like a natural out there.

 Shilo trying not to be covered in stinky green lake water!

 Found some soft sand

 And a cool hollowed out tree trunk

 True's mad mug

 the boys inside a  HUGE hollow tree

first try at a good one...

 second try...

 good as we're going to get!

 just like brothers~ best friends!

 Cute girl

 Had a fun time keeping up with the boys!

 True too had to do everything the 'big kids' did! 

 With a little of their help of course!

 This tree was growing straight out from the bank! So cool!

 So of course that posed a challenge to see how far out Chastin could climb &  me waiting, camera in hand to catch the moment he slipped into the lake. But once again, he was skillful and managed to make it out and back.

 Nature is so cool looking

 True spent a good amount of time running up ahead.
And I have to say, I didn't edit these pictures at all and the trees are so green!

 Chastin contemplating...

 can he do it?

 looks like a good seat..

                                     

 True can climb on a tree too!

 Sometimes I forget that it's so pretty here. On a nice day there's nothing prettier.
 I've heard people say that before, but now that my time in Seattle isn't a life long sentence I seem to have gained more of an appreciation for the colors... Go figure!

 Chastin ran with True when Trues little  legs got tired. Such a good big brother!!!

 Such cute kids!

After our few miles of hiking we headed to the giant play structure. I have always wondered if us parents didn't tell our kids when it was time to go if they would ever get bored...something to think about isn't it? Well the whole reason for me not working on Mondays is to enjoy my kids. So I had decided that  I would wait for THEM to tell me when they were ready to go. No matter how long. We were on spring break, what else did we have to do?

After 4 hours of pushing all four kids on the tire swing, pushing regular swings, catching True as he went down the slide, chasing after them & sitting in the sun, they finally succumbed  to tiredness and were ready to go to ice cream, With no prompting on my part.

4 HOURS! That's quite some time! I usually only let them play for about an hour. No wonder they aren't ready when I say times up. {not that it's often that I have 4 hours to play at the park:) }

 Ranch Drive Inn in Bothell has dipped cones in a variety of   flavors. The kids love it there.

 Vincent loved his swirl caramel dipped cone, Shilo had swirl chocolate dipped & Chastin had same as Vincent.

I don't know that True has ever had a dipped cone, but he had swirl dipped in caramel and finished the whole thing off! {with hardly any mess! impressive!}

We had a blast on our Moms Monday! It's always my favorite day! The kids are just so much fun to be around & I'm lucky I have a job that allows me to take every Monday off!