Family and Flora

As we've done the past several years, Lindsay and I are hosting our families for Easter, which means that Lindsay has the daunting task of preparing food for around 20 people on Sunday morning.  This also means that our nieces are in town, so today we spent several hours at Potato Creek State Park.

Lily preparing for the egg hunt

The egg hunt at the park is split into different age groups, and Lily's group was before Chloe's.

Find those eggs!

Lily's group moved across the area in which the eggs had been hidden like a swift wave, leaving no eggs in their wake. 

Success!

After this hunt was completed, my mom and Lily came over to watch Chloe's group hunt for hidden eggs.

The look of determination

The eggs that were hidden for Chloe's group seemed to be more widely dispersed, but the hunt was over nearly as quickly as it began.

Success!

After the hunt, Chloe and Lindsay were all smiles as my dad tried to count how many eggs Chloe had found.

Shouldn't this be a TNC ad?

Lily and Chloe then tallied their eggs and checked out their prizes.

Chloe with an artist's conk

After the hunt, Chloe, Lily, my mom, Lindsay, and I walked a trail, where we found a couple of Red-backed Salamanders (Plethodon cinereus), saw basking Painted Turtles (Chrysemys picta), heard Red-bellied Woodpeckers (Melanerpes carolinus), tried to catch Red Admirals (Vanessa atalanta), admired shelf fungi, and photographed a few flowering plants.

Pawpaw

These were the first Pawpaw (Asimina triloba) flowers I'd seen this year. For more information on Pawpaw, see my recent post at Get Your Botany On!.

Woodland Phlox

Woodland Phlox (Phlox divaricata ssp. laphamii) is always a welcome spring sight.  Aside from those blooming in my yard, these were the first individuals of this species I'd seen in flower this spring.

White Trillium

No matter how many photographs I have of White Trillium (Trillium grandiflorum), for some reason I cannot resist taking photos of the first plants I see in bloom each spring.

Prairie Trillium

I had seen Prairie Trillium (Trillium recurvatum) with buds earlier this spring, but now this trillie is in flower as well.

After Potato Creek State Park, we made our annual trip to Jimmy John's for lunch, another Easter weekend tradition.

Our wishes to you for a happy holiday!