Brown County State Park

This weekend we traveled over to Brown County State Park and spent our Saturday exploring nature.

Dax spends most of his time in nature finding sticks and rocks to throw and there were plenty for him in Brown County.

 We found a nice shady place to enjoy a picnic lunch. I love this picture, because I captured both of my boys eating fruit (cherries and watermelon) voluntarily! We also had sandwiches, plum bread and oatmeal cookies.

 There were awe-inspiring vistas throughout, I didn't know Indiana had any hills but it was full of them in the park and beautiful!

 We went on a little walk.

 And spent a lot of time admiring nature and God's creations.

 Pictures never do justice to how beautiful nature is.

Also in the park is a water tower that is open for the public to climb. The top of the water tower is the highest point in Southern Indiana. 

Curtis, though very afraid of heights, thought that he could make it to the top- no problem. I laughed and told him we would see him in a minute. He made it about a quarter of the way up, froze and came back down. Then after some time we made a friendly wager, myself of course betting that he couldn't make it up it, and he headed back up. This time he made it about half-way. Both the first two attempts I had Curtis take our camera up the tower with him so that he could take pictures of the view from the top. Here are Dax and I from halfway up the tower (what you can't see is how big my smile is and how bad my side is aching from laughing so hard at his wobbly granny-legs trying to tough it out up the climb.

So on his third attempt, I had Curtis leave me the camera so I could at least get a picture of him up on the tower. Here he is, Mr. Brave, halfway up!

 Besides Curtis' wobbly legs, it was also really funny that on his way down from attempt #3 we passed our friends the Hinds whose 8 year old was quickly scaling the stairs and made it to the top without hesitation. He also shared with Curtis that his 6 year old little sister had made it up the week before.

Dax, only 17 months, also wanted to give it a go up the water tower. The tower is old, shaky and definitly not child safe and Curtis stopped him from climbing as long as he would like, but he was having no problem and climbed up as far as Curtis did on his first attempt. 

 Note that there are no pictures of me on the tower, I, too, am scared of heights and enjoyed my role as the picture taker, mocking wife and bet-winner just fine from the ground. 

Dax took an afternoon nap in the car while Curtis and I drove around the park, stopping at vistas and enjoying the beauty. 

It's always interesting to me how much closer I feel to my Heavenly Father while enjoying the beautiful Earth around us. It is so nice to slow down, take a look around and have some meaningful conversations out in nature. We truly are so blessed and love one another. We thoroughly love life right now.