A Nature Walk by the Platte River

Labor Day weekend the girls stayed the night with Didi, so after dropping them off we decided to check out a local park located by the Platte River.  It had some nice playground equipment, but even better it had lots of nature to check out and vandalize.   So we went on an impromptu nature hike... otherwise known as a search and destroy mission for preschoolers.

Lucas and Dee Dee found all kinds of interesting things to look at, touch, taste (not really, but they sure thought about it!) and smell.   Dee Dee found a great mushroom (probably poisonous) that she pointed out to Lucas.  (Unfortunately...the mushroom didn't survive the discovery.) 

There were really great seed pods to check out. Some of these fluffy seeds even survived the encounter!

We saw thousands of these luscious, yummy looking Clematis berries (we called them.. Stop-Don't-Eat-That!!-They're-Dirty-And-Will-Kill-You-Berries... I'm not sure what the scientific name is for them)

A terrifying frog... although it wasn't nearly as horrifying as the dragonflies, those things are beyond mind blowing scary!

Whats a nature hike without some tree climbing?  They even posed for a little bit... before they we were off to check out everything else nature had to offer that day. 

Lucas did take a second to have a quiet moment on the banks of the Platte. I can almost hear him thinking, "If I'm really fast, I bet could be in the water before daddy can catch me.." It didn't happen, but not for a lack of trying on Lukey's part!