Mommy, Aliah, and I went on an epic bug hunting trip to Mary S. Young Park, a huge forested park just a few minutes from our house.

First, we saw flowers! Trillium, to be exact. They are native to the Pacific Northwest and beloved in the Portland area. Don’t pick their flowers!

Then I found my first millipede! It was sooo much bigger than the ones I’d found in our yard.

Aliah found this box for me on the free bench at her apartment building. She knew it had to be for me! And she made the purple handle, too. I put all of my bugs in it to look at up close, then released them.

Looking under logs and inside old stumps were a good place to find bugs.

I found this cool spider with the big abdomen.

We came across a little waterfall.

I called it a water slide and named it Nature Falls. I threw rocks and sticks down it so they could ride it.

We originally planned on crossing this bridge, but found out it was destroyed in last year’s ice storm.

So we continued on. I always had my shovel with me.

And I found a centipede! Another bug much bigger than the ones I’ve found at home.

These are formica ants. We accidentally disturbed their home and they weren’t happy about it.

Then there was this cute little snail…

…and this neat thing that fell out of a tree.

Eventually, we got really close to the Willamette River and the forest turned into sand.

While I was digging, I found a sand wasp! It was very friendly.

And a little bit later, I found this bee. It was friendly, too.

Aliah helped me manage the big rocks as we got closer to the river.

But eventually, I was jumping them on my own.

What a fun, epic day! I found the coolest bugs I’ve ever seen!