State Park fun

David just finished up his ER rotation and happened to have Tuesday off before starting his next inpatient rotation today.  So we took the day for a little family vacation to a state park and a dairy farm.  We drove an hour southwest of Columbus to John Bryant State Park near Yellow Springs, OH.

Clifton Mill

Hanging out with Daddy on the covered bridge.

Little Miami River

We started with a really easy walk in Clifton Gorge Nature Preserve to a picnic spot in a meadow.

After eating, David wanted to rest for a few minutes on the picnic quilt.  Eliana couldn't figure out why Daddy was laying down.

So she decided to join him for a few seconds.  Then she got bored, got up, spilled her green beans (in the small pink bowl by her head), and put the pink bowl on Daddy's belly.

Exploring the meadow

She liked picking dandelions.

That's a peanut butter and jelly sandwich in her hand, and peanut butter all over her face.  She likes to eat her sandwich from the inside out - first licking all of the jelly off, then scraping the peanut butter off, and then sometimes eating the bread.  It is a very messy process!

 After our picnic, we tried to get Eliana to walk the short path back to the trail head.  It is amazing how much she would run around in the meadow, but try to direct her to run in one direction, and all Eliana wanted to do was be carried.  We had so much fun.  Hiking is definitely different now (much slower with a lot more time spent looking at sticks and rocks) but I had a great time and was just cracking up at Eliana's antics.  Great time spent together as a family.  We went on one more walk with Eliana in the hiking backpack.  Since I was already carrying Baby Boy, David had all the responsibility of carrying Eliana on his back.  Therefore it was a short walk, but through the gorge among lots of purple and white wild flowers.  I really loved it, but I think David was pretty sore afterwards.  That was all the hiking we could handle for the day.  Near the state park is Young's Dairy Farm, so we stopped there next.  This was by far Eliana's favorite part of the day.  Between the ice cream, tractors, and petting zoo, this girl thought she was having the best time ever.  She was giggling nonstop and was having fun no matter what she was doing.  She loved the animals and got down on her knees to pet some baby goats.  As she gets older, it is more fun to take her to places like this because she enjoys it so much more now than when she was little. 

Eating our ice cream that is made there on the dairy farm.  This monstrosity was called the "Cow Trough" and involved five giant scoops of ice cream, three topping, whipped cream, nuts, several cookies, and a cherry on top.  It was quite impressive in its size, which was rivaled only by the size of Eliana's eyes when she saw it.

Driving her tractor.

Checking out the colored barrels

And last, giving the goat a hug.  So sweet!