What a great day!  The girls and I spent about 5 hours outside.  Our first stop was the Strathcona Wilderness Centre.  We checked out the pond to see if the beavers were swimming.  No luck there.  They checked out the birdhouses to see if anybody was home.  No luck there either so we headed into the forest on the trail. 

We've been there a number of times and they know their way around on the short trails so I took them to a spot that they had not been to; the spruce bog.  On the way, there were leaf fights and lots of running through the leaves.  We made piles of leaves to jump into and tried looking for different colors.  What fun!

As we approached the boardwalk that enters the bog, they were a little hesitant to walk into it.  The black spruce trees tower above the boardwalk making it quite dark.  The sun's rays show up as slivers of light that find their way through the thick branches.  Squirrels chatter in the trees.  There are a couple of benches there so it was a nice spot to have a picnic.  Both girls noticed how quiet it was.  They explored the squirrel middens and the bumpy spruce bark.

After our visit at the SWC, we traveled to Elk Island National Park where they played at the playground, checked out the gulls at the lake and picnicked at the old cookhouse.  There were lots of bison to see along the highway.

When we got home, they watched the bluejays and chickadees come to the bird feeder outside the window.  We were so lucky to see an evening grosbeak come to the tray feeder.  I haven't seen one in the yard for more than two years.

What a great outdoor day!  Looks like we'll be having another one tomorrow.