Nate's 35th Birthday

Yesterday was Nate's 35 birthday and I wanted to do something extra special for him this year!! He needed a good surprise!! All I told him was that he needed to wear "outside" clothes and we had a babysitter!! He knew nothing else!! He kept trying to get any information possible out of me, but I didn't budge!! Wednesday night, we packed a lunch and I secretively packed the car with our hiking boots, walking sticks, chairs, books, etc.... everything for a relaxing day in nature!! Thursday morning we met my parents in Mooresville to swap Sophia, and I told him which direction to head... Once we had been driving for about 20 minutes I told him that his birthday surprise was a trip out to Turkey Run or Shades State Park... His choice!! The perfect thing was my parents got him an annual park pass for his birthday, so we could use it yesterday!! He was thrilled and said, "I'd like to go to both!!" So we headed out to Turkey Run first and did a nice long hike! The weather was perfect and we didn't seem many people out on the trails!! After lunch on a picnic table, we headed over to Shades for another hike!! After that hike our legs were pretty exhausted and so we headed home!! My parents, sister, and grandpa came over with Sophia and mom cooked an awesome birthday dinner for both of our birthdays!! We had such a nice day!!

Here are a few pictures and a video of our day!!




I noticed this little bug on the rock during our hike in Turkey Run!! We couldn't believe all the legs!! A video does a much better job of showing this little guy in action!!




More pictures to come of Sophia!!

Allyson