Saturday afternoons are fast becoming my favorite time of the week. The grandchildren have now been "home" officially for one year. For quite awhile, they were spending a significant chunk of their weekend here with me at the Beach House, and we had settled into a nice routine of hanging out together reading good books, sharing God's Word, watching fun movies, doing art together, etc. When summer started, I had hoped that this would continue … but summer got very busy, they moved into a home of their own, and … I haven't seen them as often as I had hoped.
But now we have had two Saturdays in a row where we have been together. My heart has been much improved in happiness because of this! We decided to go back to the creek yesterday, this time equipped with hotdogs for bait. I had a rather unwise idea to try a different area of the creek for our hunt … perhaps where there were less people around ...
Except this section of the creek is deeper, muddier, and much … rockier.
The boys were having a swell time crossing back and forth across the swirling water (which was never more than knee deep), but they had better footwear than Emma did ...
I missed the shot where Emma fell in … mostly due to the crazy cheap flip-flops ($ store) that I had purchased for her to wear in the creek. We discovered last year that every now and then there were sharp objects (glass, bottle tops, etc.) on the floor of this creek, so we decided NOT to go barefoot.
Emma wasn't terribly pleased at being soaking wet and having flip-flops that were mostly … a flop!
We decided to drive around to the other side, back to more familiar territory … but first I took a few pictures of this beautiful little spot.
It's very easy to make "friends" while hunting in the creek. Children are everywhere and have all kinds of ways to catch crayfish. We met a 12-year-old boy by the name of Alex, and he became fast friends with us. We also met a young dad who was very good at catching crayfish with his bare hands ...
CRAYFISH: 1. Any of the numerous freshwater crustaceans usually much smaller than the related lobsters. 2. spiny lobster.
Below are a few pictures of the biggest catch of the day. The dad caught this one after moving a rock in the creek where it was resting ...
Our hotdog treats came in handy … the crayfish DO eat them!
We even skewered a hotdog for our favorite little beastie!
Our friend, Alex, had a gigantic net that I think was more of a hindrance than a help. Our smaller nets were able to get in tinier places. We caught eight crayfish total!
Emma wasn't too sure about me picking up Calvin II (his designated name, although I preferred to call him "Butch") … she was quite sure I was going to get pinched.
One of my favorite things is to walk in this creek during the summer months. I've been here during the winter when there is ice and snow making all kinds of alluring and beautiful patterns and … I've never had good enough boots to trust walking in the stream to get that better vantage point. But during the summer, it's very fun to just get in and walk around ...
After our hunt was over and we returned our catches to the creek, we returned to the Beach House where we enjoyed a huge meal together. We also had enough time to resume our reading of, "The Horse and His Boy" (two chapters!). But then it was time to drive them the 10.6 miles back to their house!
Emma got on her bike and showed me one of her favorite places to ride … just down the street from them, a large parking lot and a nice hill ...
And, of course, Kaity-girl was there waiting for us. She is a bundle of energy!
Emma suggested that we have a "noodle" fight, so we girls each grabbed a noodle and pretended they were swords ...
… and Kaity is one tough little cookie … a very aggressive warrior she is! I love these pictures of her. So thankful for these few precious hours!
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