natural dam

I don't look at sidebars ~ okay, well, once I did, but as a general rule,

nope; I just don't see 'em.

All that advertising is lost on the likes of me.

But.

One day, I happened to see my sister's name pop up on the side bar on facebook.

She'd commented on a picture, so I went and looked at it.

A friend of hers had gone camping near some waterfalls and the pictures were just gorgeous!

And ever since,

I've wanted to go visit some of the waterfalls nearby.

Friday, Tyler had taken the day off 

(he loses his vacation days if he doesn't take them by the end of the year. We usually try to save some for emergencies, 

but in the absence of emergencies, well, he ends up needing to take a few days off still as the year draws to an end)

and the weather was fantastic,

so we just up and decided to take a picnic and head to a waterfall.

I wanted something fairly close (2 hours or so) and an easy hike.

After a quick search,

Tyler had settled on Petit Jean.

Close, but the hike to get to the fall was listed as 'moderate to strenuous' and 2 1/2 miles round trip.

I wasn't sure my foot was up to that.

So he found a smaller, closer one, with no hiking required

and we took off.

We had a fabulously restful time exploring and enjoying all the beauty God created.

Lexi kept saying, "Don't worry about me. I've got this."

That driftwood was heavy! The girls worked together to get it down from the dam. They wanted to bring it home,
but Tyler said we'd just burn it. So we left it. But I loved that they loved the driftwood.

On the drive - Josiah kept calling out that he'd seen a 'rainbow tree' ~ this tree truly was.
There were plum colored leaves, oranges and reds and yellows and greens. I wish I were a better photographer!

The boys were sliding down that big flat rock behind the one they're climbing on. I was just waiting for a crash...