gotta do more than walk-n-wave.

We watched part of the Opening Ceremonies last night. As per usual, I got a bit choked up watching the Olympic Athletes march into the arena. I explained, "They have worked so hard to get there! They have trained and practiced a lot, and NOW HERE THEY ARE!!" Eric frowned as he carefully watched them walk and wave, then decided, "I don't think they had to practice THAT much."

Eric is definitely my son.

Today for Mommy and Eric day we went hiking at the Maplewood Nature Center. It was a gorgeous day and the snow was powdery and sparkly. It was magical out there. We saw lots of great animal "evidence" (thank you Ms Jeske for that word!! We LOVE to find evidence!!) and even spotted some wonderful birds. A bald eagle soared above us for quite some time. We saw a pileated woodpecker and another fluffy woodpecker whose name I have since forgotten. We found a rabbit nest (the evidence was a hole in a tree stump surrounded by scat scat and more scat. We took a photo of that) and saw numerous types of tracks everywhere.
We got super cold and our toes were frozen (shocking!! My 15-year old Sorel boots don't keep my feet warm anymore!!) but we tramped on and on. We had a ball.

It's so important to have a nature buddy. I'm glad mine is my son.