A Little Trip to the Lake

Collecting Sea Shells, He had Pockets Full

Papa Pete in a Tree

The Little Man Avoided the Camera the Whole Trip, Glad I got this One!

Waking Up in the Cabin, and the only prof I was even there.

Our Little Cabin

The Kitchen

Two years ago for our aniversary, with child and new baby in tow, we took a trip to Clinton Lake and stayed in their cabins.  Because of our four-year-old amazing memory, he hasn't let us forget about this trip or his desire to return to 'our' cabin on the lake.  Since Pete's parents were coming into town, we thought this was a perfect opportunity to return to the cabin, and to share our love for Lawrence, with them.  The weather was rainy, sunny, windy, gray, and cold.  Thankfully while we drove it rained, when we arrived and went on a nature hike it was sunny, and gray, cold and windy when we went to the Natural History Museum at KU.  This constant change in weather gave our sunny Arizona parents a true dose of a midwestern fall.

Our nature walk consisted of following a long trail through the woods until it came out at the lake, where upon sea shell hunting ensued.  Golden had requested mid-summer to go to the beach so he could find shells, so he's been waiting a long time for this.  I'm just glad that a beach in Kansas was enough for him and that we actually didn't have to go to the ocean.

High light of the trip:  not the seashells, not the dinosaurs at the museum, not the cabin, not hanging out with Oma and Opa, the high light was - protecting nature.  Since I married an earth conscience man, and he has raised our children to be such, they cleaned up the beach.  Both Pete and Golden were tired of all of the beer cans and plastic bottles, so they got garbage sacks and picked up the beach for two hours.  This isn't my style of vacationing, I don't even think it makes my top ten list of things to do while on a vacation, but to those two nature lovers it was #1 for sure!  They were so proud of themselves, that they talked about it all day, how they had made a difference that day.  They even sorted their trash and took it to the ranger station and requested recycle bins.  So if you are in the area and looking for a quick get away this winter, Clinton Lake, is the place, and you could make a difference and make sure the beach stays clean.