Hanging Rock State Park

We have so enjoyed Josh's work schedule.  He gets a day off every week, which a lot of times is used to work on projects or do errands or something but sometimes for fun outings.  One of his days off in August before school started we went to Hanging Rock State Park.  It is less than an hour from us, and there are a lot of cool hikes there.  We figured this time we'd see how many of the waterfall hikes we could do, since they were shorter and the weather was perfect for swimming.  We busted out the hiking backpack we used in Dominica with Shane and haven't used much since (not tons of hiking going on in the Midwest...) and had a blast.

 I'm glad we went to this waterfall first because it ended up being the smallest, and so we were pretty excited to see it when we got there but it wouldn't have been as cool after seeing the other two.

 Keeping little miss sassypants going was by far our biggest challenge.  The older two do great and Aaron loved the backpack but her little legs just don't love walking very far.

 I tried all kinds of motivating talk, distractions, threats, etc.  She actually did the best when she was climbing stairs because she loves counting (like someone else I know!)

I love hiking with kids because it helps you see things in a new way.  Shane was the one who discovered that what we thought were big spiderwebs everywhere were actually silkworms.

and he wanted to try out carrying Aaron in the backpack,and much to our surprise he could actually do it, and did it for almost half a mile.  That thing is heavy!

 The second waterfall we got to was bigger than the first and we were able to all get in it so that was pretty cool.

 Can you tell in that nice family picture above that Aaron was naked as a jaybird??  He loved playing in the water, as did they all.

 The third waterfall was the biggest and had a big pool around it too.

 It was hard to get it all in one shot so we tried out the panoramic setting.

 Happy boy.

One of the things we love about North Carolina is that there are so many more outdoor opportunities and more months where it is enjoyable to be outside to do them.  We are excited to keep exploring!