Legos and Clay

Paris Mountain

Today we went to Paris Mountain State Park just north of Greenville to enjoy a small adventure in the woods. Jack was especially excited about loading his backpack with a compass and binoculars. He also insisted on bringing a camera to capture the sights on the mountain. We ended up hiking 2.8 miles over a period of 2.5 hours. The summer heat is still intense, and the boys drank nearly all of the water in their packs. 

 The trail led us down to this small mountain stream where we saw some small fish darting around.

 Here's a photo of Jack trying to compose just the right shot of a bug.

 This is a shot of the view from Paris Mountain. The tree cover is very dense, so it was hard to find a long shot like this one.

 Luke found a tree to climb.

This park is frequented by mountain bikers, and I thought this public tool rack was a pretty cool.

Here's our track for today's hike. We were able to stay on the ridge line most of the time, but the trail did bring us down into a valley. You can see that in the elevation profile below.

The Children's Museum of the Upstate

We spent the day at The Children's Museum of the Upstate with friends. The boys had a great time and played their little hearts out. Lyndsay sent me a few pictures to share. 

Tongue and Groove

Luke is taking after his brother in his love of building things, but he stands alone in his technique. That tongue is all Luke-style!

Down the River

We spent Saturday afternoon tubing down the French Broad River in Asheville. My phone made this sweet video of our time together.