Scary Ernie and our Nature Walk

Nana gave Jace the cutest laughing Ernie. At first I thought he was going to love it, but each time we turned him on Jace became more fearful. We've been patient and helped him realize how fun Ernie can be, but Jace still insists on only touching Ernie on his hair or his hands. And if he has to pick him up, he holds him by his head, being careful not to touch his stomach that triggers Ernie's laughter.
Jace likes Ernie now, but is apprehensive. He laughs at him and finds him intriguing at least.
With all the incredible weather we've been having, not including today, I decided to take Jace on a nature walk since he loves rocks, leaves, grass, and trees. My plan was to collect whatever he wanted to in a bag and examine it and talk about it more when we got home. Here he is enjoying the freedom on our walk as he ran ahead quickly.
Loving the pine cones.
My favorite picture of the outing.
We stopped at the park near our house on the way home and you can see Annie came along with us. Look closely and you can see the plastic bag of all our findings next to Annie. When I went back to get her so we could leave, she had chewed up the bag and everything in it. I guess she got bored waiting, she usually never does stuff like that. Needless to say we didn't have any treasures to take home.

Fun times!