Springfield, MO- Chasing Nature.

As a person who typically spends 90% of her non- sleeping time outside, being in the city is DRAINING. I was fairly overstimulated for most of this trip and found myself on the verge of hiding the TV remotes, car keys, and obnoxious sound system power sources from everyone I encountered. That being said, after a bit of digging, I discovered that Missouri has some pretty sweet outside places and a fair amount of REALLY NEAT critters and plants to admire.

I saw an Indigo Bunting (who flew away before I had time to snap a photo of him)! I went on a hot, humid, sweattttty run at a trail head near our hotel (while my mom got her walk on) and found myself screeching to a half fairly regularly in order to snap photos of the neat flowers lining the trail. I also got myself slammed into the passenger side door of our rental car when my mom swerves to avoid Geoffrey, the Battlefield Turtle, who was bravely trying to make his way across the road (I gently encouraged Geoffrey to return to the wilderness after taking a photo of his adorable turtle face!).

All in all, the graduation weekend was fabulous. It was wonderful spending time with my family and watching Carlie graduate. It was also nice to discover that nature wants to be appreciated in all places.