Elephant Rock and Taum Sauk State Parks

Ever since summer ended, I've been in a camping mood. I'm about to spend 6 months indoors (due to winter), and I just want to live outside for a little while. As we were choosing which park to go camp at, the weather channel was saying that pretty much all of Missouri was going to be experiencing thunderstorms all weekend. Awesome. I decided we would go anyways.

We decided to go to Taum Sauk Mountain State Park since it has a pretty rugged hiking trail, the highest point in Missouri, and the tallest waterfall in Missouri.

It was about a two hour drive from Saint Louis, and on the way David wanted to stop at Elephant Rock State Park for some awesome boulder jumping. Elephant rock is made up of enormous rounded boulders of pink and red granite. Over the years, the strata covering the boulders has eroded, exposing the amazing rock formations. It was beautiful and really fun:

By the time we arrived at Taum Sauk, we were just in time to grab the last camping site. The park's 12 basic sites are first come first serve, so we were pretty lucky. We were planning to hike the park's mountain trail the next day, but I was a genius and ended up melting the soles off of my shoes trying to warm my feet by the fire...

So sad.

I ended up hiking it anyways. Wearing shoes with no bottoms. 

Kind of like wearing moccasins, which I dig anyways.

This was no stroll in the woods either. The entire mountain path was constructed with jagged stone, and the hike consisted of climbing up and down mountainside rocks, sliding down wooded paths, and climbing down waterfalls. (Well, the waterfall was just for the fun of it...)

Really incredible natural beauty.

Oh, by the way.,. it didn't thunderstorm at all. Eighty degrees and sunny :)

The Unseen Was Everything

I'm turning some of my photos into word art. I quite like it. ;)

We went to see the birds

My little brother, Joshy, has a lot of really great interests. Raising turtles, outdoor exploration, sketching, painting, taking pictures, birdwatching, creating terrariums... Many of them are things that I also enjoyed while growing up (except for raising turtles... I raised frogs).

A few months ago, we discovered that Saint Louis is home to the World Bird Sanctuary, and I wanted to take him for his birthday. Everyone ended up coming along, so that was pretty cool. I've lived in Saint Louis for a while, and I had never so much as heard about this place before a few months ago, so I figured it could use some free promotion ;)

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The World Bird Sanctuary is located near Lone Elk and Castlewood State Parks, near the intersection of highways 270 and 44. It's one of the largest centers for the conservation of birds in the United States. Many birds who are injured and are no longer able to live independently in the wild are brought to the sanctuary for care and to be used for public education. If the birds are able to be healed, they are released back into the wild. Bird species who are declining in Missouri are bred at the sanctuary and released to repopulate the area, promoting the biological diversity of our forests.

The birds that cannot be released back into the wild are kept outside and are either in cages that allow flight, or are tethered to their posts. A caretaker explained that this doesn't bother the birds; birds of prey expend most of their energy flying in search of food, and would much prefer to remain stationary in one spot all day long. Since the sanctuary provides the birds with their food, they don't have a need to expend all that energy on flight.

Most of the cabins, exhibits, educational displays, and flight cages were constructed by local scouting groups.

Happy birthday Joshypoo

Running Around

Sometimes between my shifts at work, I go to walk/run around in some of the more impressive neighborhoods in Saint Louis. I'm not a person who strives for wealth or prestige, values which many people consider these neighborhoods to represent.. but my sense of well-being is often greatly affected by my surroundings. Saint Louis as a whole has a sort of ironic beauty about it; crumbling urban decay, images of the past mixed with the present, authenticity mixed with commercialism. After a while it weighs on your senses. I love the sense of vitality and well being that comes from being surrounded by things that blossom and grow. The neighborhoods that I have been exploring are amazing, in this sense. They are full of old houses, towering trees, and front lawns covered in huge flowering gardens. What if we worked to make the rest of this city like that - full of restored houses, flourishing gardens, towering trees.. and we could all run around all day ;)

Summer Moments

Some of the moments I most savor during the summertime are simple ones..

Playground moments.
Swimming pool moments.
Helping little girls learn to play baseball moments.

One of my all-time favorite summertime moments is from several years ago when these kids were so little. They each gathered handfuls of sticks and ran in a line through the backyard pretending they had wings...

Here are just a few summertime moments.. These days they are way too few and far between.

The Birthday Girl

Baby girl turns 8 today... It seems so crazy. We had her birthday party yesterday at Creve Couer Lake, where we got to play baseball, go bike riding, and had a "real adventure." I'm so glad I've been able to celebrate every single birthday with you, Hannah girl.