We got a little preview of summer last week with the incredible warmth and the kids off school. What I lost in productivity we made up for in fun. One day we left town to spend some time in nature and spent nearly the whole day at the Crosswinds Marsh Preserve near the airport (we'd been there before). But this time: the frogs! My son has been singing this song about frogs all winter and it's pretty adorable. See for yourself:
When we were walking out there in the marshes it seemed like all the frogs really had just woken up (he thought some of them were monsters). If you're going to look at these pictures, I suggest clicking here to hear how magical this walk was.
It was really amazingly hot for a March day and my daughter started complaining about the heat so I let her take off her mudboots and walk through the marsh in bare feet despite the risk of splinters, tetanus, hookworms, roundworms, tapeworms, pinworms, whipworms, bladder worms, porkworms, broadfish worms, flatworms, worm fits, flukes, impetigo, scrumpox, staph infections, scabies, thrush, scarlet fever, nits, lice, fleas, pruritis, rubeola, bronze john, bloody sweats, bloody flux, chilblain, typhoid, blackwater fever, croup, grocer's itch, dock fever, dropsy, quinsy, scarlet rash, scurvy, spongy gums, shingles, St. Anthony's Fire, trench mouth, etc. Sometimes you just have to live dangerously.
Removing the boots changed everything, turning them both into total sweethearts. We walked for two more miles and they held hands the entire time.
The kids discovered their first snake in the wild:
That little garter was just sitting in the sun and even let the kids pet it before slithering away. There was a little stream with a "waterfall" where they stuck their feet, shrieking with joy.
There may have been the promise of ice cream (Calder Dairy Farm is about three miles away) behind some of this sweetness, but they earned double scoops that day.
I can't believe I'm saying this, but I can't wait for summer.
