Micah's Day and Olustee Battlefield State Park

My sweet Micah had a fabulous 6th birthday!  I love to have my kiddos plan out their day.  I love what they pick to do and we always have such a good time!  Of course, we started our day early with lots of presents!

Then Micah said he wanted to go to a state park we had never been to before.  I read him some of the ones within an hours drive and he picked Olustee Battlefield State Park.  It's about a 45 minute drive and is east of Lake City.

We started off in the visitor's center where we learned so much about the Civil War Battle of Olustee.  My kiddos had never studied the Civil War in school yet, so they were full of questions.  We watched the short movie in the visitor center.



We rounded a corner of the museum and it scared Silas half to death!  He wasn't expecting to see a statue of a soldier!

Outside the Visitor's Center is a huge monument.

Micah was excited when he found this snakeskin crawling in to the monument.

There were lots of canons to look at, which my kids loved!

Then, it was off on a hike!  They have a one mile hike through the actual place of the battle.  There were signs and quotes all along the way. It was quite sad to know that many men lost their lives in that very spot.

It was very informative and really piqued the curiosity of my kiddos.

The trail was absolutely gorgeous and very well marked.  We enjoyed walking on this cool morning.

 But, then my busy, birthday boy could take strolling along no more.  It was off on a run for him!  That's my Micah!

Towards the end of our hike we could hear lots of birds.  Then, we heard a woodpecker!  If you look on the first branch on the right you can see the Red Headed Woodpecker.  There were several of them that we ended up spotting.  How fun!

We really enjoyed this park.  It was clean and a perfect little getaway for our morning.  It really did get my Silas to thinking about the Civil War and how America fought with itself.  He's had lots of questions since then and has been looking through his history book.  It just so happens that next week he begins studying important people during the Civil War.  So he's excited to learn more.  Yesterday he was really thinking hard about everything and said, "Momma, do you think America will ever fight against itself again?"  I don't know son.  I pray not.

Then, it was off to McDonalds for lunch!

And lots of bike riding that afternoon!

We ended the day with church and cake afterwards.  My boy had a great day!  We all did!