McConnells Mills/Moraine State Park - All In A Day

While Doug and I were in San Francisco we continually would think, "oh, wouldn't Koen love this" or "Tav would've really enjoyed being with us for this." So, while we were there we decided that this Saturday we would have a little adventure day with the boys. We were just craving sharing a fun experience with them after missing them so much. Today we left the house at 9:30am and headed to McConnells Mills for a hike and we had the bikes and swimwear to go to Moraine afterwards. It was a full day, but a good experience to see what the boys liked and how they did with the different activities. We learned that although today was completely successful, next time there is plenty to do at each of the parks to just pick one. =)

Here's a pictoral review... Happy Hiking Family at McConnells Mills! Tavin really enjoyed his view from the backpack (don't worry, there was a reason I was hauling the backpack and Doug wasn't...now what was it again?).Koen was usually leading the pack, but in this picture he looks a little confused. He was so into the map, following the arrows and the blue paint lines. He was bounding through the forest. It was great! We had to take a picture to show that we made it to our goal of "finding the covered bridge." Koen was so excited when he spotted it. Pretty much he was on turbo overdrive the whole hike. He was enthused about every aspect. Tavin enjoyed it when I had to duck or move to the side to miss a branch, he threw a few rocks in the river and also loved to test out echos (it's his new thing), calling out "da" in between the rocks to see if he could hear the echo. I didn't know this, but the Mill is periodically open for visitors. I've never been in there before. Koen was again very interested and moved around quickly checking it out while talking a mile a minute!

After our hike we headed over to Moraine State Park for a 3-4 mile bike ride as the sun came out (perfect!) and then we set up our picnic area.The boys had worked up quite an appetite. Doug has his game face on and is working on devouring his food while the boys are content. Koen is in picture mode and is saying "cheese" through a mouthful of pasta salad. And Tavin, well, that face speaks for itself! He had three bowls of pasta salad before he was happy to be done with his first course.I know it seems like we packed a lot in, but, well, ok, you are right we did. Here's a shot of the boys after our swim in the lake. It's a gorgeous lake and the swimming area is very nice. The water is murky, but the bottom is sandy/rocky and not gross slime or anything. The boys really enjoyed the experience (although we forgot the buckets and shovels as if we could've done another activity anyways!). Doug and I enjoyed the chance to cool off for sure!

Well, that about sums up the day. The drive home the boys got super tired. Koen got a little whiney and Tavin got slap happy. We got them home an hour after naptime and it's now 5:30pm and I should probably wake them up so they have time to eat, play a little and go back to bed on time. They must be exhausted.

If you are in the Pittsburgh area and have kids and have forgotten about these parks or didn't know about them, they are totally worth the one hour drive. Beautiful land and lots to do (except maybe take it one activity at a time!). We plan on going another time before the swimming closes to Moraine and hopefully a few times this Fall to hike at McConnells.