Fall hiking!

I often watch my friend's daughter, Ava, during the week while she is at work. Monday was one of those days that I had her. She goes to half day kindergarten at Willott Christian Academy so she is out at lunch time. Well with Adriana being out of school and having Ava for the day I thought it would be a fun time to go on a hiking trip. I was originally planning on taking all the kids after Andrew got out of school, but I forgot Adriana had gymnastics so we had to go before we picked up Andrew from school. I decided we needed to go somewhere close so we headed back to Busch Wildlife. I really like this trail because it is close and its not a very long hike for the kids. Ava has never really gone hiking before so she was extra excited about it. I know I take tons of pictures wherever we go, and believe me I only actually post a third of the ones I take. So of course here are a few of the pictures from the hike.
The kids were trying to decide which trail to go on.

First we had to make a stop to see if we could see any birds by the birdfeeders.

Then they decided to head on over to the fishless pond.

We spotted many frogs, but this little guy was very brave and just stayed there while we got really close to get a picture.

Stopping to pose on the bridge.



Then we headed inside the building since its never usually open when we visit at night. On this spot they have all kinds of interesting things to learn about various animals and even animal skins you can feel. I love hands on displays for the kiddos.

Adriana was looking at a turtle that had a deformed shell because of it getting stuck in litter. Always a good lesson for kids when they can see first hand how litter can effect everything.

Then we headed outside where they have a large open area where the kids ran around playing tag and hide n seek.

It was a lot of fun and another perfect day to spend outside!