Hiking

 Camping means hiking!  Usually I just mosey along and look at the scenery.  This year, I went for it.

 I wanted to use hiking as a way to get some exercise, so I led the pack on our first hike through the sand hills.  Later I slowed down and took some pictures, but not as many as usual.

 I grew up on the river, so this was not really an extraordinary state park for me, but the trails were nice and the weather (at least for part of the weekend) was beautiful!

 They had an awesome pine plantation from when the park used to be someone's farm.  I couldn't believe that there was no underbrush here.  These trees were my favorite.

Well, Kansas people--here you go, I hope this doesn't make you miss the trees too much!

My nephew-- Ham!

 This is one of my husband's (and mine, too) nephews--let's just call him Ham.  I think I took more pictures of him than anyone/anything else on the camping trip--he is so photogenic even when he is grouchy.  He has the cutest mad face.

 As the third child in a family of four kids--the most recent being a pretty little girl--Ham is easy to overlook.  He is such a well-behaved little guy that sometimes we didn't notice when he was about to get into something ornery.  He loved the fire ring, the cook stove, and anything shiny!

 He also caught onto one of his uncle's hats and carried out his little gangster persona.  You can't tell from this picture but I think he is a budding Colts fan!

 Ham loves balls even more than he loves having his picture taken. These watermelon were wonderful toys until some crazy adults decided to eat them.  How dare we take his ball!

Uncle John Deere loves Ham.  He hogged him all weekend--Monday morning, when Ham was upset with his mother, John Deere took him and cuddled him for over an hour.  They entertained each other with funny noises and funny faces.  Uncle John Deere is convinced that he has some special kind of baby magic.  I call him "The Baby Whisperer"--hopefully that sticks around for when we have our own kids!

Fire tower at sunset!

                                                    I think this picture looks like heaven.

                                         The shadows were so cool.  Doesn't he look thoughtful?

                                  Lots of graffiti.  I liked this one.  Below is the view to the east.

I decided I wanted to hike the the fire tower at sunset.  I can't believe no one else had this idea!  We were at the top of the 90 foot tower as the sun went down.  I had a fun time playing with the shutter speed on my new camera.  The husband even took over and shot some awesome cloud pictures.  So pretty!  I think we are going to go back later this fall to catch some of the fall foliage.