A Walk in the Woods

The days fill up so quickly with have-to-do's, but one thing I couldn't let pass by this fall was a leaves-crunching walk through the woods at Ledges State Park.  We were finally able to squeeze it in after church yesterday, which meant dinner in the car and gave us only about an hour and half to run and jump and explore and climb and laugh together before the sun disappeared.

 And it was completely worth it.

It takes a little more effort to get to places like this here in Iowa, but I love it every time we do.  There is something so magical about trolling through the woods together, and my heart ached a little bit for Indiana yesterday, where wooded adventures were just a five or ten minute drive, not 45 minutes.  (And of course, we were reminded that we need to get these kids back into the Rocky Mountains as Noah insisted that I needed to carry him because "dees mountains are just too twicky!")

And even though it meant sleeping in a bit and having a rushed back-to-school morning, it was completely worth it to disappear into the autumn woods together last night.