Susquehanna State Park

As the summer was drawing to a close, the kids and I decided to head up to Susquehanna State Park for an afternoon.  As soon as we pulled up the kids were enthralled with all the butterflies flying around and were able to get a few to land on their fingers.

We checked out a few of the old buildings in the area, including a mill and spring house.

We then headed up into the woods and had a great time checking out all the rocks, trees, plants, and streams. The kids were really surprised to find shells all along the trail we were on.

At one point Xander excitedly pointed out this "huge tree".

So of course Savannah had to find something equally as cool - this "really skinny tree".

And nothing is as cool as a stream with big rocks to climb all over. It didn't take too long for Noah to "fall in".

Beautiful Rock Run House, the home of a US general who resigned from the army to join the Confederates. He was captured at Gettysburg and died shortly after his exchange.

When Noah isn't falling in the stream, he's falling off the path.

Thank goodness he has a great big brother who came to help him out and be a crutch for him as they continued on.

Another fun little friend.

Checking out the river - the boys were thrilled to find this old rope stuck in the sand.

We definitely would have stayed longer but my allergies seriously kicked in and after only 15 minutes of hiking I was in misery. I struggled through the afternoon, going through Kleenex after Kleenex until I finally told the kids we had to go home. I could barely breathe! Plus Noah got stuck in the "quicksand" as he referred to it and his shoes were so covered with wet sand and dirt that he could barely lift his feet to walk. We were quite the comedy act as we headed back to the car. But what a beautiful area, one that we will definitely head back to.