Another Wet, Dreary Day

Today, was the fourth rainy day in a row.  

We decided we didn't care if it was raining.  I was a light rain.  I love to run in the rain, light rain is like liquid sunshine.  

(Actually,  it's not. Nothing beats actual sunshine.  Living in Colorado for a year certainly made that clear.)

Anyway, Selah and I went for a 2 mile run/walk.  In the rain.  I do so love how fresh the air is during and after a rain!

We stopped at the stream that was SO much fuller and faster than it had been earlier in the week.

This is our little, neighborhood waterfall.  It doesn't take much to entertain us these days.  

We approached from the other direction, and Selah was anxious to know what the sign said.

We weren't expecting it to say the sidewalk was closed.  There weren't any signs from the other direction. Oops?

After lunch we ventured out to find something outdoors that was still open for fresh air and exercise.  We had driven over the Rappahannock River a number of times and there were sometimes people on the rocks below. So we went in search of an avenue there.  

We found some trails on the map. Our first attempt to park landed us in a construction zone.  So we tried again, passing at the local ball field. Talk about a ball field!

They begged to play kickball, rather than head to the river. It was an interesting, rubber field. Easy to maintain,  I suppose. But, alas, there was a sign stating,  "este espacio esta cerrado." My Spanish isn't the greatest these days but I was pretty sure that meant it was closed.

So we headed to the river trail, as we had already checked to see that the trails were indeed open.  

E: Mom! Look! There's a fire hydrant buried in the woods!

This is Northern Virginia in the Spring. It's wet, for sure. But it is also very green!

Obligatory one non-candid picture.  You can see their joy.  

We made it to the quarry. The kids could have played here a while,  but there were other people around.  And we certainly don't want anyone to claim it's not safe and shut down another place.  (No one was within 6 feet of anyone else,  but neither was anyone on any of our trips to Shenandoah and they've shut that down.)

So they looked at the fish, and we moved on. Elijah was upset we wouldn't let him try to catch them.

Rocks to climb on!

B: Selah! Find a stick! Let's see how deep this is!

Sometimes mossy rocks are gorgeous. Looks like a forest from the sky.

THE SUN CAME OUT!!!!! Not a minute later, Bryan asks if we are ready to leave. Nope. Never.  At least not until the sun is setting! It's been at least 4 days of no sun! It was so glorious to see it again.

We're all venturing back across the treacherous path to land and I look back and see Selah is walking the opposite way.  With a large tree branch. 

Apparently,  her last branch got stuck and she wanted to free it. She was unsuccessful. 

The boys threw in one last boat from land.

And Bryan suggested they look for Morells. I assured them that the giant mushroom was not a Morell, so they smashed it. 

You can see Elijah's thoughts in his body language.

As we approached the trail that we arrived on, Bryan said we were going to try a different way back that hopefully wouldn't be so confusing and therefore quicker. I agreed, while praying profusely. He isn't known for his sense of direction. However, he's always survived Army land navigation events.  So... all in good fun, I annotated this picture. 

Turns out the new path was a road.  It was certainly less pretty but much quicker.  He found is the van with no issues! And in only 13 minutes!

It certainly wasn't a bad Sunday, but this was my favorite part.  Big, fancy salads on Sundays make me happy.