Springs and Rocks

Long time since my last post. So sorry.  Vacation happened.  

Let's backtrack.

We were down in the country the last week of June.  One of the side trips we took was to Blue Spring. The picture of the sign explains what it is.  It is also said that the spring is so deep that you can put the Statue of Liberty in the spring and the water will be over the top of the flame.  You could say that it is a very deep spring.  

A little friend we found.

 Ellis and GPop always on the way to exploration.

 The spring is so blue due to the limestone and dolomite deposits.

 Funny enough, this was one of the highlights of our visit.  A dung beetle on his merry way along the path as we were leaving.  Ha!  The things that entertain my crew.

Another outing took us to Rocky Falls for swimming and rock climbing.  

 How clear the water is.  Gotta love the Ozarks!

Now that I have posted these, I want to go back yesterday!

Mingo National Wildlife Refuge

Who knew that Missouri has a natural swamp area?  I didn't.  It is really cool.  The wildlife (lots of snakes this year) and the environment specific trees were really amazing.  Here are some pics.  Not much to say about this day.  We were all enthralled with the environment here.

Here we watched a water snake.  It was the first of MANY.  Big year for snakes.  Yuck.

 Banded water snake.

Do you see the face in the limestone bluff?

See this tree below?  It is a Balled Cyprus.  So cool!

 Yep, that's little E.  He cracks me up.

Off to Cancun tomorrow.  When we return, pictures of Big Spring and Rocky Falls down in the country.
Maybe some pictures from Mexico.
Happy 4th of July!

Oklahoma and the Current River

Here are the pictures I promised from our trip to Oklahoma and the Current River.

Here we are at the OKC zoo with my nephew and niece.  Isaak is too cool for family pictures now.  

Next we went to the Science Museum Oklahoma.  SO MUCH FUN!!!

Isaak laid on a bed of nails.

So did Ellis.

Current River

Of course we had to catch minnows and make them their own pool.  Yes, we let them go back to their school.

Another river favorite.  Riding the waves after a john boat goes by.

Isaak attempted to stand on one of the tubes and do a back flip.  He almost made it.

I don't have anything to say about this one.

Avery was more successful with standing and surfing on a tube.

Next post, Mingo National Wildlife Reserve.