Rooster Rock.

Friday, October 10th we spent walking around Rooster Rock with friends and enjoying the last nice day of the season.

I took a million pictures of the kids this day—the lighting was great and they were just being happy and carefree and beautiful, so I couldn’t resist.

Cody, Sydney, Cade, Ian, Elna, Ella, and Hattie.

How can I pick just one of these to post?  Hattie’s smile is killing me—such a big cheeser!  And Elna is just so sweet!

Those sandy hands and legs have me yearning for summer or San Diego.

All of the kids spent a lot of time digging this hole and filling it with water for Hattie to sit in.

Cade, Ella, Sydney, Hattie, Elna, Cody, and Ian.

Cody, Elna, and Harriet.

After playing on this beach for a while, we decided to brave the other beaches that we had to walk through (and the nudists on them) in order to get to a place we could cross to an island that’s in the middle of the river.  Because it’s so late in the year there’s a place you can cross without getting wet because the river is so dried up.  We made it without the kids seeing anything, and they had such a great time playing at this other beach.

Elna is out there with the big kids.  She’s such a good swimmer I really don’t worry about her, and plus the bigger kids were out there and the water was very shallow—like maybe Elna’s waist deep.

These two pictures of Hattie just fill my heart up—I love seeing my children in their very happiest most carefree state.  My girls love the beach and wide open spaces.  We are missing the summer, can you tell?

Elna looks cold!  But happy of course!

Warming up with her buddy!

Walking back to the cars.  This is the dry stretch in the river, and you can see behind us where we spent the last half of our day there.  We had the best time!  I feel so grateful for good friends, healthy bodies, and this beautiful place we call home!