Elachee Nature Center

Last Tuesday, I took Joe, Selah and Lauryn to the Elachee Nature Center. We walked the Ed Dodd trail and I learned something new! It turns out Ed Dodd is the creator of the Mark Trail comic from the newspaper. Apparently, he was a resident of Gainesville and after his death this trail was named for him.

Lauryn kept shouting excitedly, "We're in the woods!"

"Take a picture of me up here, Mommy!"

This Eastern Tent Caterpillar was inches from Lauryn's face before I got her to notice it.

They could have stood there throwing rocks in the creek for hours.

Joe's eagle eye spotted this Brown Watersnake sunning himself on a log in the middle of the creek.

Pink Honeysuckle

Eastern Garter Snake - I nearly stepped on this fella while pointing out the trillium to the kids!

Right outside the nature center's main building there was a play area. On a platform there were tubs of small logs and circles cut from logs. The kids had the best time building stuff and playing with these.

Joe set up a game of tic-tac-toe and we played several times.

Lauryn found a piece of log with a small protrusion and immediately pronounced it to be a hammer.

The hammer was in demand by everyone. At one point Selah was using it and Lauryn wanted it back. With a meaningful look at Joe and a gesture to some nearby twigs, I asked him to find a "screwdriver" for Lauryn to use. He caught on quickly and offered her a small twig.

"Here's a screwdriver for you, Lauryn!"

"Thanks, Joe!" She fiddled with it for a moment, then with an absolutely disdainful tone, nose wrinkled in disgust, she announced, "It's not a screwdriver, it's a STICK!"

We rounded out the day with ice dreams from Chick-Fil-A, and a frosted coffee for Mama!