Devil's Den

While on a visit to see my family in Fayetteville, I was able to talk my sister and her family into spending a day outside in the woods at one of Arkansas' most beautiful state parks, Devil's Den. Madison stayed home with Granny which turned out to be a good choice for obvious reasons. We missed her but it was nice to have a day with my little boy. We were very sad that Jeffrey wasn't with us but now that we've been there and scoped it out we will be better prepared for next time. This was a big part of my childhood and seeing how much Tyler enjoyed it and how much he learned really makes me want to give him more experiences like this. Here's what we did:

Mommy and Tyler.

We started the day by canoeing and paddle boating. Ask me about our attempt to go take all the kids canoeing at the same time!

This is a suspended bridge that's at the beginning of one of the trails. It was so funny to see Tyler and Devin's face when Tony jumped to make it move. I think they thought they were going to fall in.....then they started laughing and jumping themselves.

This reminded me so much of Jeffrey. They both love to throw rocks and we really wished he had been with us on this day b/c he would have loved to see Tyler in this environment.

Here we are walking across the damn. It was so slippery and such a big drop that we just scooted along. Tyler really thought this was so cool b/c it was "dangerous"!

Tyler and Devin took off once we got to the creek.

We had to drag them in for lunch but they ate SO much and never stopped drinking!

When Devin swims he stays under water 99% of the time.

Once we started skipping rocks that's all Tyler and Devin wanted to do (but really they were just seeing who could make the biggest splash, Tyler thinks he has a winner here).

Shooting spider webs.

I was worried that the 1 1/2 mile hike to Devils Den would be hard for the kids but they were having so much fun that they never slowed down. This is Tyler running up ahead of me. He knew to slow down when the trail had narrow spots and he spent a lot of time exploring nature.

So here's Devil Den and this is the entrance....you go straight down! And the only light after about ten feet is what you bring with you. Tony brought one flash light and we now know that you need one per person b/c it was that dark! We went as far as we could go until it was time to start crawling then we turned off the light so the kids could see exactly how dark it was (the boys started laughing). Next time we are going all the way through!

There are supposed to be big twin waterfalls toward the second half of the hike but the water was low because it hadn't rained in a while but it was still beautiful and it cooled us off.....

and quenched our thirst. The water was ice cold and tasted so pure.

Tyler and Abbie shining a flashlight into the deep unknown. This picture worries my mom but they were safe.

"You go first."