Circle of life interupted

We were out at Chris's mom's house today when we went for a quick jaunt down to the mailbox only to find that a snapping turtle nest had hatched out. Jasmine found the first one on the side of the road and was so excited she had found a little turtle. I immediately warned her about picking it up because even little snapping turtles can have a mean little bite. I picked it up and moved it across the road pointing it toward the nearest water. Mom told us that there was a nest up the road and they were probably from that. Upon walking further Chris's mom pointed out where the snapper had laid the eggs, and sure enough there was a tell tale hole in the sand. We sat by the hole and watched another two crawl their way out. Again we took them across the road and pointed them in the direction of the nearest watering hole. The kids would have happily sat there all day waiting for more to come out, but we decided it was time to go. As we walked down the street back home we found another five turtles in various areas of the roadway. I decided we couldn't let nature take its course and have little squished turtles on the road, so we picked them all up and carried them home. Lucky there is a pond in the back yard where we could let them go in. It was a pretty special day for the kids to see fresh out of the egg turtles. I remember as a kid watching the big snappers come up from the lake, lay their eggs and take off. My brother and I would mark where she would lay the eggs with a circle of small rocks. We checked on them almost daily until they hatched. Good honest fun.

A huntin' Chris will go... while I go up nort'

Christopher planned a hunting trip this year with a friend from hockey (ironically not too far from Glacier National Park)and he is out enjoying said trip as I write this. I on the other hand, hate staying at home alone when he is away so I packed up the kids and the dogs and headed up north. I really miss living in the north woods with the UP being close enough to take a day trip to. We love spending time on Lake Superior and exploring the ridiculous number of water falls located around the state.

Mom and I decided to take a trek up north today and let the kids play. We crammed Jas, Kai, and Leo into the car and headed off on our adventure. Poor Mel had to go to school so she was sad she couldn't join along. OVer the years, since I was a kid, the Michigan park system made the falls much safer then they used to be by putting stairs and rails up all over the place. Personally I think this kind of takes some of the fun away, since we can't go climbing on the falls like we used to ( we used to be the adventurous types.) But, on the same accord, you would also never dream of taking a five year old, a three year old, and a two and a half year old to them either, one wrong step and they would be gone. So boring for teens, and exciting for little ones, guess it is for the best. The kids had fun running around the board walks and burning off some energy.

We then ran up to Lake Superior and let the kids toss rocks in the freezing water and play in the sand. We knew there was no way we were going to keep the kids dry so we took off their pants and let them run into and out of the very small waves that were rolling over the beach. Poor Leo couldn't quite get the timing right for running away from the waves. He would run into them when he should have been running away from them and running out of them when he should have been running in.

We packed up once more and made our last stop at Presque Isle Falls. This was a pretty area and I think next year maybe Chris and I may try to take a long weekend there without the kids to explore more and do some hiking there. There are a lot of abandoned towns all over the place there from the late 1800 and early 1900 that I would really like to hike into to check out also. I don't know if there are much more then cemeteries still around but it would be neat to check out.