Leaburg Dam and Fish Hatchery

I made no point of hiding my desire to escape my house all week prior to Labor Day.  With Nati at camp during the days and Ellie staying with us, all three girls did not make "housecleaning" their priority.  Throw in one very active two year old, and the mess was just too much for me to want to deal with day in and day out.  So, we took field trips.

On Wednesday, we ended up at Leaburg Dam and Fish Hatchery.  It's probably a 40 minute drive from our house, so that's part of appeal knowing it helped with just killing time out of these days.  =)  And, the location was a little ways up the river and shaded, so we were hoping it would be a little cooler than the temps in the 90's in the valley.  (Another reason not to stay home....too hot to play outside)

It had been a long time since I'd been there, so I was nearly as much of a newbie as the girls.  We did find a swing set further up into the heavily forested (and beautiful) park, but given we'd stopped at a park along the way - we didn't see the need to spend time there.  Instead we headed to the fish hatchery.

Had to stop at this place just to take a pic.  =)

Then, we went to see the fish.  And they were interesting.  

Look at those guys!

At the end of that side of the ponds, a lady feeding the fish that tipped us off to a trail on the outskirts with a stream and pond full of raised and natural fish.  PERFECT!

Gorgeous setting - too bad Whitley was upset at this moment...

If you look in one of those sunspots, you can see a fish swimming through.  It was really neat!

Whitley thought so too, and was running to catch up with the girls.

A LOVELY pic of my beautiful niece!

Then Whitley caught up with and photobombed....

It looks like she's totally reading the information sign.

Whitley's favorite part of the visit, by far, were the sprinklers.  We spent a good chunk of time right here...

On the way back...

Following our visit, we stopped at the Leaburg Country Store for treats.  We planned on getting Whitley some chocolate milk (she's in love with it!) and some "last-week-before-the-diet-starts" treats for us (well, I guess that diet just applies to me...).    When we walked in, they had an empty "mini-cart" that had been used to display outdated items on clearance.  After we'd found Whitley's chocolate milk and had turned around to find our own treats, we saw this:

She'd chucked her chocolate milk in the cart and was pushing it around ready for us to add our groceries too.  It was sooooo cute!  

When we stepped outside, we tried to take a group selfie.  Whitley was being uncooperative as she'd locked her sights in on my Toll House Cookie Ice Cream Bar (definitely one of my all-time "if-I'm-gonna-cheat" treats).  She wanted it instead of her milk and actually threw the chocolate milk across the parking lot when we tried to entice it to her instead.  

She did get a few bites from me - but only liked the inner ice cream.   And, she polished off her chocolate milk in no time once we got in the car.

This field trip was a huge success!