Rocks and Robins Eggs

We went boating at Massacre Rock on the Snake River today. It was lots of fun. Even Drew liked it. He was hesitant at first, and hated his life jacket, but pretty soon he settled into the groove and had a good time.

It was a gorgeous day for boating, but too windy for wakeboarding (which was ok for me, since I can't wakeboard this summer, anyway). We saw a lot of pelicans on the water today, and think I even saw a great blue heron (or it might have been some kind of crane; I didn't get a very good look at it). We also saw an area of the shore that had been burned by a lightning strike last night; it was still smoldering.

We stopped for lunch at the Shelter, which is a little area on the shore that a friend of ours rents from a local farmer. It's secluded from the main boat dock, so we never have to worry about finding an open table. There's just one picnic table under a little structure with a roof and two walls, the other sides being left open. There is also a rope swing, and last year I enjoyed swinging off of it into the water. This year I had to settle for watching, but next year I think I'll try a flip.

The kids love to stop at the Shelter and play; I guess they get sick of being on the boat all the time. Our friends' kids were looking for crawdads, of which they found dead ones in abundance. We saw a little frog that didn't seem terribly afraid of us, until we tried to catch it. Drew and Owen thought it was hilarious to watch it jump and swim. They've never seen a real frog before, and I don't think they made the connection from the cartoonish frogs in their story books to the real thing. But they loved it nonetheless.

We were at the Shelter for a couple hours, and Owen spent most of that time in the water, throwing rocks and splashing and laughing. Drew spent a surprising amount of time in the water, too; he's not as brave as Owen, but he also doesn't like to be the only one not doing something that looks fun. Owen slipped in the water a couple times. He was trying to pick up rocks off the riverbed, but because the water was waist-deep on him and his arms are short, his face ended up in the water, causing him to sputter and lose his balance. But it didn't deter him much. He continued to harvest rocks, and when he got tired of throwing them, he decided to eat them. Unfortunately, some of them were covered with algae. Yuck!

Drew got tired of the water, and went exploring on the shore. Our friend's kid, Ashley, followed him around to make sure he didn't get hurt. Every now-and-then, she would dash back and report: "Drew found some flowers!" or, "Drew found some berries!" I asked her to make sure he didn't put anything in his mouth, so she ran back to him and made sure. Then she came dashing back, saying, "Drew found a blue egg!" I said, "Oh! It must be a robin's egg!" Ashley turned to Drew and asked him if she could see the egg shell. He wouldn't relinquish it, but put it right into his mouth. I grabbed him and scooped the shell out of his mouth. Sure enough, robin's egg blue. It was pretty, until Drew chomped it to smithereens.

Finally, our afternoon came to an end and we headed home. The boys were quite tired, since they woke up earlier than usual and didn't get any afternoon nap. Drew fell asleep within two minutes of being buckled into his car seat. Owen fell asleep about half-way home. These are the kind of summer days that get me through the cold Pocatello winters. I'm just looking forward to next summer, when I can take more part in the action.