As you know cabin fever has been getting the better of me! This past weekend we decided to venture out for an outdoor day even though it was far from warm. Although I must say the mid to upper 30’s with a few rays of sunshine were kinda like a heat wave compared to the temperatures we have been experiencing in our neck of the woods. That’s why we looked a little Eskimo-ish :). 
Layers, snow boots, snow suits, gloves and hats later we were quite cozy despite the chilly temps!
We decided to go to Starved Rock, where we had camped this past summer, to see the bald eagles that nest there during the very cold winter months. The nest there because the locks and dam keep the water from freezing allowing them to fish. It was AMAZING to say the least there were at least 25-30 (Gabe’s estimate,not mine, I stink at estimating things :)). We saw them sitting in trees, flying, fishing, sitting on logs in the water and eating! We saw one huge nest (they are approximately 6 feet deep and 6 feet wide!) in a tree on the other shore. Now that I have explained how awesome they were let me just say that the pictures are not quite as amazing because I don’t have one of those fancy shmancy, million $$, zoom in from 3 miles away cameras! But I still wanted pictures to remember our day so I took them with my little ole point and shoot :). That being said here they are: 
This is the first one we saw, he was soaring and flying and swooping when we first got to the overlook and then he landed in a tree. We quickly got the binoculars out and realized that he was eating a fish! Trinity thought that was the coolest thing ever! 
There are at least 15 in this picture sitting in the trees. Some of them were young and did not have their white feathers yet so they are just dark spots but you can count some of them by their white heads.
There are 3 more in this picture.
We also had a lesson on how to use binoculars :). Trinity figured it out quickly and enjoyed them, Keenan….who knows what he saw, but he liked to look through them :).
I just love these pictures :)!
Our day was not without it’s challenges. Trinity was hungry so she was whining asking about lunch every 2 seconds, we tried to tell her to eat more breakfast :). And snow boots aren’t really meant for hiking in but that was the most appropriate footwear we had so we went with them. Trinity and I had some some sore tootsies by the end of our little adventure! Gabe has some really nice and heated hiking boots and Keenan was carried most of it so their tootsies were just fine :).
It ended up that Trinity’s whining asking for lunch worked in our favor! We went to the Starved Rock Lodge for lunch and beat the lunch crowd since she was just starving and couldn’t wait a minute longer for food. 
This was the huge fireplace inside the lodge that we warmed up at before lunch. It was nice and toasty!
We braved the weather, with full bellies :), for a little longer so that we could check out St. Louis Canyon. It was totally worth it!! This is what we saw:
How awesome is that…
and that…
and that?!?!?
It was amazing! The pool that the waterfall pours into was totally frozen so you could walk right up to it, touch it and climb behind it.
It was spectacular!
Our hike back to the car was not a very long one but my little man was determined to do it all by himself (He did except for the stairs at the end)!!
All in all we had a great day, learned some things about bald eagles and binoculars and got out of the house :). Trinity is working on a Bald Eagles lapbook for school, I hope to post it when we are finished with it!!
