Flat Rock Brook Nature Center

Brandon has had the car most of the time that we've been in New Jersey, so when Caleb and I get to have it, we have to make the most of it. The best place we've discovered so far is the Flat Rock Brook Nature Center. It has tons of trails that you can walk on through the trees and even alongside the river. I heard someone say there was a waterfall somewhere, but we've yet to discover it.

On the other side of the bridge is a playground. Which is why we've yet to find the waterfall. It's hard to get Caleb to want to leave the playground once he sees it and it's at the beginning of the trail.




I love the faces this kid makes!




Caleb surprised me when he climbed to the top of the playground equipment where the big swirly slide was and then went down without any prodding from me. It wasn't that long ago that he was afraid to go down a slide by himself (i.e. a month ago) and the only ones he normally tries is the straight down, softly sloped, not scary slides.




What neither of us had realized was that at the bottom of the swirly slide was a huge puddle of who knows what. Caleb was soaked through. Since we didn't have a change of clothes with us, I took him over to the bathroom and wiped him down with toilet paper, then stuck him under the electric hand dryer. He actually thought the dryer was pretty funny. The whole time we were walking to the bathroom, he walked with his legs spread as far apart as possible. It was hilarious (to me, not him).



After getting cleaned up, Caleb refused to go down the swirly slide again, even after I cleaned up the puddle of water/gunk. He thought the tube looked like a safer slide, especially since he didn't really slide much in it.





He also liked the little slide. Then again, a guy had come by after the swirly slide incident and had blown the leaves and water off this little slide. (But then Caleb scared him away with his death looks and the rest of the slides didn't get cleaned. So little slide was the only clean slide.)




Before we could go home, Caleb found a tiny puddle that just HAD to be jumped in.

(Pictures from 5/2/09)