I love waterfalls. I love being in the forest. Last week, we traveled to the Kentucky border to get the new puppy. We decided to make a day of it and find a really cool state park to hike. We watched as the forecast got colder and colder. Then, snow was forecasted. We didn’t care. We didn’t leave quite as early as planned, but we hit the trail and hiked three miles with flakes of snow falling.
We went to Ferne Clyffe State Park, which is within Shawnee National Forest. Southern Illinois is really beautiful. I didn’t want to leave. I stacked a bunch of rocks to prop my phone up to get the above picture. It was worth it.
The trail was rocky and slick from the rain and snow. I would say it was the most difficult one that we’ve done with the kids. We gained over three hundred feet in elevation, which isn’t the most we’ve gained. It is certainly more than we gain here in flat central IL.
This trail definitely scratched my itch for adventure. I’ve been checking out so many travel books from the library in an effort to escape.
I highly recommend visiting this area. We hiked the Waterfall trail and Hawk’s Cave Trail. The waterfall trail was not marked well at all. We actually ended up off course, but quickly realized it. Turns out, we were supposed to turn left and climb a rock wall to stay on our trail. I climbed to the top to make sure that it was, in fact, a trail. It was such a blast. Good shoes are also needed with the way the Waterfall trail is. It’s not a smooth dirt trail. It was a lot of rock and climbing.
I hope you get out and explore. Nature is the best therapist.
We are a hiking and exploring family! Often, we will pack up a picnic lunch to keep in the cooler in our vehicle and eat after we’ve completed a long hike. But, picnic lunches can be boring and repetitive. We always pack sandwiches, chips, fruits, and veggies to keep it simple. Oh, and water. Lots and lots of water. Sometimes, simple ends up being boring. If we are going to continue doing this so often, I need to get more creative and pack something fun. On our last picnic, we brought along WayFare plant based pudding. It was a fun addition to our typically predictable meals.
When we aren’t out hiking, we are working on the homestead. There are a lot of animals to feed and care for. Plus, a really big garden to weed and water. The kids play outdoors most hours of the day. I want to fuel their bodies with healthy foods that will help them grow and maintain excellent health. I don’t just feed them good foods, but I explain to them why we do so and what makes each food healthy. Thankfully, they have always enjoyed learning more about nutrition and food. I don’t bore them yet.
Heart disease and diabetes run heavily in my family. I have always been aware of the genetics that are chasing me, and now my daughters. I’ve studied and researched the best ways to care for our bodies. I also wonder if it is the habits that get passed from generation to generation that have the most impact. Either way, I want to teach my kids healthy habits so that they have a solid foundation for health when they are adults. They know that treats are just that– a treat. Treats are something to enjoy every now and then, while still choosing the best options. They are not something to be consumed in excess. WayFare pudding was a yummy treat for everyone to enjoy. It is a treat to have a small cup of pudding with our meals.
Look at those sweet faces. Gosh, I love them.
I received this product, WayFare Pudding, for free from Moms Meet (momsmeet.com) to use and post my honest opinions. Compensation for this post was provided and this page may contain affiliate links.
WayFare puddings are free from the top 10 allergens. If you are new to the food allergy world as I was, you may not know what the top 10 allergens are. They are Dairy, Wheat/Gluten, Eggs, Tree Nuts*, Peanuts, Shellfish, Fish, Soy, Sesame, and Mustard. *Highly refined coconut oil is used in their foods. The process used makes it virtually free of allergenic proteins.* Harper, my youngest, was born with a dairy allergy. It was horrible. I had to completely give up dairy while breastfeeding, and the tiniest amount would make her be violently ill. Back then, finding dairy free options was really difficult. Finding tasty and healthy dairy free options was nearly impossible. While she has mostly grown out of the allergy, she still gets an upset tummy if she has too much dairy in her diet. I am still very careful with her because I don’t want her in pain. Also, dairy irritates the lining of her intestines, so damage could be done internally that I’m unaware of. I am so thankful to have found a pudding treat that is safe for her.
WayFare pudding comes in three flavors– chocolate, butterscotch, and vanilla. We all tried every flavor, and all three were completely delicious. At first, everyone wanted to try chocolate or butterscotch. Vanilla is usually boring, you know. The chocolate was in the lead ahead of butterscotch, though I was in the minority loving butterscotch the most. When the kids didn’t have any other option, they gave the vanilla try. Wow! Vanilla was the favorite! It tastes just like cake batter. You really cannot beat cake batter flavored anything, in my opinion. I almost hid the rest of the vanilla to keep for myself. Almost.
WayFare puddings are plant based. I’ll be honest. I’m usually completely turned off by seeing the phrase “plant based” because the product is usually fully of unhealthy ingredients. That is NOT the case with WayFare, and I am so happy. Their base is organic butter beans and organic oats. How they made butter beans into something that tastes so delicious is completely beyond me.
WayFare pudding is certified organic, kosher, vegan, and gluten free. It checks off many boxes that consumers are looking for. Just a couple of weeks ago, I was telling my dairy free coworker about this pudding. WayFare was only shipping to 36 states. I just saw the announcement on their instagram page that they are officially shipping nation wide!! This package was shipped to me, where the temperatures have been miserably hot, and the pudding was still plenty cold. If you would prefer not to have it shipped, you can check out their store locator to find a store near you that sells WayFare. It is typically sold at Wegmans, Lucky’s Save Mart, Mom’s Market, Festival Foods, Woodman’s, and Tony’s Fresh Market.
WayFare started when their family faced some terrible diagnoses. They decided to switch to a plant-based diet to heal, and saw their health issues reverse. They developed their own ultra-green, zero-waste, sustainable food manufacturing system. How incredible is that? You can read more of their story here. I love stories of people taking control of their health and healing. Knowing that they built this great company as the result of all of that is just even more incredible. Thank you, WayFare for making such a yummy treat and sharing it with the rest of us.
You can go to wayfarefoods.com to place your own order for the most delicious pudding on the planet. Seriously, get the vanilla. I have a special code to share with you where you can get 20% off any product. You can use the code shareWF20 for your discount on any product that is good through April 26, 2022. Be sure to check out the many other products (cheese, dips, cream cheeses, sour cream, etc. ) that WayFare has to offer while you are there.
I LOVE the weekends that Scott has off. We always try to make the most of having two full days in a row together.
Addi had written a letter to Scott asking if we could go camping this weekend. (She likes to write letters to us and put them in various places through the house.) We checked the weather forecast, and it was going to be hot days with really cool nights. Since it cools off fairly quickly in the evenings, we decided to go for it.
I set the tent up by myself while Scott was at work– not bragging, just a testament to how wonderful this tent is. Since we didn’t have rain in the forecast, we left the cover off. It was so nice to look up and see the stars above us.
We like to play games in the tent before bed. Spot It, UNO, and go fish have been our go-to’s so far. I’m a huge fan of waterproof games. It is much less frustrating when a drink spills on them or a mother accidentally sprays a garden hose on them. You know, the normal stuff.
We went for a hike, but mostly got distracted with playing in the river. We tracked down the big sunflower field that everyone locally has been talking about. We roasted s’mores and ate burgers and hot dogs. We read stories and snuggled in for the cool nights.
Adventures don’t require a lot of planning, or even any extra money. Just decide that it’s going to be done and do it. These kids are growing at a lightening fast rate, and I don’t want to miss it. I’m exhausted and my back aches from two nights on an air mattress. But, my heart is so very full.
**I also should note that our kids aren’t always cheery and excited for hikes and things like that. One of the days, I could tell everyone was grumpy. I shouted “TODAY IS GOING TO BE A GREAT DAY!!!” and one of my sweet children mumbled under her breath “no, it’s not”. But, guess who had fun anyway. Drag them along and bring a snack.
It is a unique experience to go somewhere during a pandemic. I have been very concerned about my child getting sick and ending up hospitalized– because we were there a year ago. You can’t get much more distant than tent camping and visiting a massive national park, so we went, and I am so glad that we did.
Let me just start by sharing the precautions that they are currently taking. The information desk is outside. The rangers are under a small canopy to answer questions, hand out maps, and give junior ranger workbooks and badges. Should you need to go inside, traffic is one way. Everything is incredibly clean. They even moved a gift shop outdoors. There is plenty of open air. They only have one cave tour open, and they altered the route because the usual route didn’t have enough air flow to be safe during this time. So, rest assured.
Scott and I have been talking for some time about wanting to visit all of the National Parks. We want to visit as many as we can while the kids are still with us, and after they are grown I hope we continue to explore. It’s something we have always loved. He suggested that we go camp and visit the closest park to us, which is Mammoth Cave National Park. We left on Saturday and came home on Monday.
The entire park was so beautiful. Yes, there are MILES of beautiful cave to explore. But, they have also preserved thousands of acres of forest. There are places to camp and trails to hike. It rained on us the whole weekend. In the forest, there are so many trees that you don’t get as wet as you would expect.
We signed up to to the Extended Cave Tour. Like I said, everything was different for us. It is usually a guided tour. For safety reasons, that was not the case this time. They did have rangers all throughout the cave off of the path that would explain things to you and answer questions. They also limited it to groups of fifty for each tour. We didn’t get to see everything that I was looking forward to, but that is just incentive to go back!
The entrance and exit were so beautiful. You could immediately feel the cool cave air as soon as you hit the top of the steps. The cave is consistently in the 50s, which was such a nice relief from the heat and humidity. Pack a jacket! Your eyes adjust to the darkness and you can see every detail of the cave. I had to laugh when I looked through my pictures. So many of them were just black photos, and I wasn’t sure what I could see at the moment. I do know that I said “wow” a lot. I’m so glad that we did it!
There were so many trails to hike. Since we were only there for one full day, we didn’t get to do very much at all. There are lots of hills. I think my fitbit said I ended up doing 36 floors that day between the cave and the short trail. I had over 16,000 steps. The kids did great!
Most of the parks do a Junior Ranger program. Once we set up camp on Saturday, we went to the park and picked up the workbooks for the kids to do. For this program, the kids had to earn “bat points” based upon their age. Each page was worth a certain amount of bat points. Once they had earned enough, they could go back and get their junior ranger badges. We all learned so much from these books!
I am so passionate about our National Parks. I was fortunate enough to visit several of them when I was younger. Their efforts to conserve nature and history are so good. They offer so many resources for educators. They are passionate about getting kids outdoors. There is so much to learn! We were looking at where to go next while traveling home. This book has been so good for planning. (I didn’t get my passport stamp and am so sad.)
We spent another weekend camping in our tent. If you remember, a sudden severe storm took out our 12 year old tent, so we broke in our brand new tent. It felt like a mansion!
I discovered this app called All Trails, and we went for one of the most scenic hikes within a certain distance of us. We wanted to stay in Central Illinois because we have something extra fun planned for this weekend! This trail was Sun Trail that is located at Friends Creek County Park. There are a few trails to choose from there. This one was the longest at 1.9 miles.
There is a small parking lot to park and start your hike. We only encountered one person on the trail, which was really nice. We stopped many times along the way to look at butterflies and snails. It took us a little over an hour to complete this trail. We always look for loop trails when we are hiking with our kids.
The trail was so beautiful. We had perfect weather for the hike– so much so that it was actually a little chilly in the shade.
The kids all declared that this was their favorite trail we’ve done so far.
If we remembered correctly, this bridge is from 1905. The girls love to play Pooh Sticks whenever we cross a bridge over water. Is anyone else a Pooh Bear fan?
If you are hiking with kids, always bring a snack. There will be a point when they get hungry. They are kids after all. Our go-to snack is always Clif Kid Zbars. They are a special hiking-only treat that the kids always look forward to.
This trail is very family friendly. You do gain quite a bit of elevation, but nothing that’s too difficult. The trail is wide and well maintained. There weren’t any picnic tables or bathrooms near the trails– you have to cross the street and enter the campground for those. There are also several small towns with parks that you can picnic at that are nearby. If you are in the area, definitely stop and visit!
