Take Me to the River...

What do the Skaug's do on a sweltering hot evening once dad's gotten home from work?

We eat a quick dinner, load up 'the boys,' and head to 'the river' to take advantage of the cool breeze and quiet atmosphere.
As soon as we arrive at the gate,

J hops out to unlock it,

A climbs into the driver's seat

and Had perches herself on my lap for the drive in along side the river bank.

As you can see...A takes her driving VERY SERIOUSLY!

Had goofing off in the mirror.

C.R.A.Z.Y. G.I.R.L!!!

WE'RE HERE!!!

(and yes...those are her Jammies...after all, it was pajama Monday).

A gets really excited to look for different animal tracks and it getting good at identifying them. Here she found some deer tracks...

More deer tracks!!!

I sure do love this man-o-mine.

Isn't he handsome?

He loves trips to the river.

It's his sanctuary for sanity.

After a stressful day at work,

he'll grab his bow, the dogs and head out for some R and R.

My favorite part of this trip was when A discovered this rock and called me over to investigate. "LOOK MOM! God put a cross of this rock just special for us!"

"A, you know what? You're absolutely right!"

Kids are way smarter than people give them credit.

Ole LOVES the water...Hank LOVES that Ole LOVES the water

...keeps the pressure off of him from having to get in it.

It's actually very generous of Hank to let Ole have all of the glory of fetching the sticks out of the water.

Truth be told Hank is too smart to want to fetch a dumb ol' stick anyway.

Had LOVES throwing rocks into the water.

One after another...in they go.

Ole still LOVES the water.

Had STILL loves throwing rocks.

R.O.C.K.S.

AND another one!!!

She really loves the splash they make.

Have I mentioned yet that Had LOVES throwing rocks into the river.

Alright...enough rock throwing...she switched to drawing in the sand.

A giving the water a 'test' prior to sticking her toes in it.

Two minutes later...we couldn't get her out of it!

This is the view to the South toward the majestic Mt. Rainier

...yes, it is directly in the mud flow IF (not when) the mountain ever erupts.

And this is the view to the North.
Now if this isn't proof that there is a God...

...no man could ever create anything this simple, yet incredibly gorgeous!

Bear? Cougar? Or REALLY REALLY BIG DOG

...didn't really matter to me...I was not hoping to meet up with the critter that left this print.

One more throw for Ole...while Hank waits anxiously for his return to the bank.

I sure do love this girls' overly CHEESY grin.

This girl is serious about driving! She got so frustrated with me each I put my hands on the wheel trying to detour us from driving into the river.

"I GOT IT!!!" She kept yelling.

Strong willed?!?

Wonder where she gets that from?

Alright Had...take us home.

Until another day...