Easter Said Than Done

Saturday we had plans to take Riley to Tyler State Park and walk the stream like Kevin and I did back in October.

Incidentally the wildlife sightings started before we even got within five miles of the park!

Kevin has been wanting something to showcase all the rocks and pebbles we find together and bring home from our park outings, so we made a quick stop at Good Stuff Thrift and found something fancy looking that didn't break the bank (and we don't have to worry about feeling too bad if it ever breaks):

And soon after, we were at the park and ready to walk the stream:

We had our work cut out for us. There were lots of obstacles, and we were dreadfully out of practice!

Taking it slowly just meant more time to appreciate the scenery...

But sometimes it was time to plan out a line, focus, and cross your fingers that you wouldn't slip and take a plunge.

Don't forget to obnoxiously shout "parkour!"

Riley went too fast and "missed the trees for the forest," so to speak. Or rather, the fish for the stream...

Kevin pointed them out to her, and she rushed back and tried to bare-fist one...

Riley initially wasn't super into it, and kept asking how long we would be there. But soon she was mapping the terrain, planning out each line to run, and trying to stay in the lead!

Sometimes we would opt for the hard way over the easy way. Why run the shoreline when we could run the center of the stream?

...And sometimes, there was really only one way to go.

We're not ashamed to say we noped right out and hopped up onto a trail to bypass this beaver-dam-looking thing that tried to gandalf us.

Then we were right back on track on the other side...

Riley sprinted ahead again...

...then scolded us when we caught up to her a minute later.

This meeting started at 1:20... not 1:21 and a half. I need you here much faster next time.

Kevin accepted the challenge.

Yeah? Well now I'm gonna be the gingerbread man.

Kevin led us as far as we could go before the mountainsides started to close in and there was no way to proceed without getting wet.

Then somehow, Riley and I blinked, and he was already up the mountain and looking down at us while we tried to free ourselves from the patch of thorn bushes we had walked into.

Having had enough of an adventure by that point, we joined the normies and decided to stick to the trails and take in the nature:

And of course I got some ahtsy-fahtsy shots:

Guess who had come to visit when we got home around 4:00pm?

He already had his tire and rim off as we pulled in. But, he didn't end up calling it a day until close to 8:00pm. (Talk about a day well spent. Doing the same gruntwork for the fourth time in as many days!)

The next day was of course Easter Sunday. After breakfast, I gave Riley a few presents I'd bought for her (and I noticed that my minor injury from the park yesterday looked uncannily like some sort of stigmata):

Kevin's mom had invited us over for dinner later in the afternoon, but not before a small egg hunt she and Kelly had planned for Olivia and Riley :)

Liv showed extraordinarily advanced wartime strategy for a toddler, opting to sneak up on this particular egg and ambush it from behind!

Riley took a bit more of a lackadasical approach:

But both girls made out like bandits in the end:

Then we had a lovely dinner with chicken, corn bread, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, broccoli, deviled eggs, and cresent rolls:

And then we all tried to find some room for dessert, with limited success!

Happy Easter everyone :)