Creeking

This weekend was a hot one! Temperatures got all the way to triple digits on Saturday, so we decided to go somewhere we could stay cool and (at least) get our feet wet. We packed up the kids and headed to a local state park to explore the creeks there, equipped with water shoes, nets and minnow buckets. I grew up in the country and we had an awesome little creek at the end of our driveway. I can't even begin to tell you how many hundreds of hours my brothers and friends and I would spend in that creek. It was our happy place. So, I get really excited when I have the chance to take my city kids into the woods to act like country kids...and they're really good at it! 

The water was cold and felt great in the heat. There were fewer minnows and more mosquitoes than we were expecting, but the kids didn't seem to mind one bit. Mac was intense in his hunt for minnows to fill our fishtank at home and Mim exclaimed "baby fishy!" everytime she saw one. We didn't find any crawdads, but we did find a sculpin, snails, clusters of caterpillars and lots of rocks with really cool fossils. Both kids loved exploring, but went about it in their own ways. As usual, Mac was full-speed ahead and forged his way down the creek bed, splashing and throwing rocks as he went. Mim lagged behind, taking her time examining every rock, every leaf, every flower. It took her 20 minutes to cover the same distance as it took Mac 2 minutes. We fielded a million questions from Mac, such as "Is this a dinosaur tooth? Is this the same kind of water that's in the river? Is it illegal to throw rocks at people? Why can't people eat rocks? Do fish eat rocks? Do dinosaurs eat rocks? Why is the water cold? Why does that tree look like that? Is this a vine? Are there any dinosaur eggs here? Is that a crocodile? Is this poison ivy? Can we find a snake? Are there trout in here? Where are all the turtles?" Having a 4-year old is exhausting. After a couple hours (and a couple meltdowns), we headed back to the car with our fill of fresh air, sunshine and mosquito bites. 

Hope you have a chance to get out and explore this weekend!