An Afternoon at the Park

When you say 'park' to my 4-year-old, he thinks swings and slides. He was a little disappointed as we drove around Hickory Hills Park near our home and saw nothing of the sort! Come on, I'll show you what we did see. 

The weather was perfect: 70 and calm! Amazing for Fall in Iowa!

This park is new to us--we've been living 20 minutes away for 3 years and just found it!

We drove through a large campground near a lake and decided we have to camp here next summer! More about the lake later. There are other things to see first.

Like elk! 

And children playing in the leaves! (To see more of them, see yesterday's post.)

I love the texture and color of these boards and wanted to take them home and make something. I think it was part of this big guy's shed, so probably not a good idea.

My boys were amazed by this bison. I was too! He was about 20 feet from us (on the other side of a tall fence) and was just HUGE! I can't imagine thousands of bison roaming around the prairie, or a stampede?! 

I finally found the macro feature on my new camera!

Ah, blue skies and windmills. So very Iowa to me!

The trees on our property don't fall like these, and what does fall gets blown away in the wind. 

The boys loved kicking through the leaves!

Hello, random door to an animal shelter, you're coming home with me! My new closet needs you.

I wondered if this was some sort of deer rehab. Those are two of the skinniest deer I've ever seen!

My boys wanted to play in this murky pond so bad!!! It just wasn't the day for it. Mean ol' parents.

This guy got to play though.

I love Fall!

Don't you just want to squeeze this little guy?!

 I love babies more than Fall! Especially this one.

At last! The lake!

Let's have a picnic right there!

My husband looked up the camping facilities when we got home--they have cabins!

Wouldn't that be the perfect fall get-away?

Hope you enjoyed the tour of Hickory Hills Park!

Day 15