Nature Walks with Silly Bean

One thing I absolutely love doing with Silly Bean now at this age is taking nature walks! Especially in this season too when it isn't too cold yet and there's so much to see. Luckily for us, our state has so many different walking paths and nature centers, so we've had great opportunity to check out different places when we have time, explore the woods, look for animals, and get some good old fashioned exercise in while taking in the sights of fall. It's so fun pointing things out to each other and seeing how Silly Bean delights in all of it. Plus, it's free!

Today was a cold morning, but we bundled up anyway to go on an adventure! We went to a little trail near an environmental education center near where we went to see owls as shared in a previous post. It was lots of fun looking at photos that other nature lovers took on their walks on the trail, looking for frogs, and looking up at trees and their leaves.

 

Unfortunately for Silly Bean, the path was a little more "rugged" because there were so many roots of trees on the path, and because he was running excitedly and laughing, he ended up face planting a few times and it was all very upsetting :( He then needed to be carried for a while by Mama or Baba until he stopped crying and was ready to venture again.

I didn't get any pictures of the inside of the environmental education center, but it is really neat. There is a whole exhibit downstairs interactively presenting information (was aesthetically pleasing, informative, and engages so many of the senses) about the surrounding swamplands which I can see Silly Bean learning a lot more from when he gets older. But for now, it was just looking at some of the animal models, touching the touch-and-feel sections (not bothering to hear about what it was of course ;P), and looking at the animal puzzles.

Here are a few other pictures of other nature walks we took in the past 2 weeks, squishing leaves, collecting leaves, and throwing rocks:

 

I know there's a hashtag trending nowadays of #optoutside, but really, I feel like it's #howtonotloseyoursanityintoddlerlife! Fresh air does a kid (certainly true for Silly Bean) wonders!