challenge accepted

i happened upon the Texas Nature Challenge by accident wednesday night as i was looking for "bug related" activities for colby. it didn't take me long to register my family of 4 and select our first adventure.

From the website:

"The goal of Texas Nature Challenge is to get families and kids outdoors by visiting as many participating parks and nature areas in Texas as they can. At each site, participants complete activity challenges designed for family fun and nature exploration."

Challenge #1: State Capitol Grounds

thursday morning when we told the kids what we'd be doing that day, colby asked.....

colby: "will we be looking for bugs??"

me: "no. this is more of a tree hunt it looks like. and some monuments."

colby: "trees?!?! no bugs?"

me: "well, i'm sure there will be bugs, but thats not our focus today. we're going to go on a kind of treasure hunt around the state capitol."

.....and so it went; and he only slightly moped to the car.

we were pleasantly surprised at how much fun we had and how engaged our two kiddos were in the activities on the challenge printout.

daddy, colby, and molly in front of the bald cypress on the capitol grounds. colby: "hey, its bald like you are, daddy!" 

this beautiful and unconventional water fountain was a new discovery for us as we followed our challenge instructions.

the detailing in the fence that encloses the capitol grounds is beautiful in its detail. one of the steps to the challenge was to sketch a portion of the fence in a designated spot on the printout.

we were instructed to walk around the capitol building and point out any interesting features. we all of course love the capitols signature dome and the goddess of liberty. molly also noticed the green roof, and colby really liked the large number of windows.

it was a surprisingly fun day, and once we got there, the kids were really excited to learn some new things about the capitol that they hadnt heard or seen before in the other times we've been there. we're looking forward to our next opportunity to do a nature challenge.