Crawdad Rescue

I'm waiting for dinner to finish cooking and thought I would tell you the story of the CRAWDAD RESCUE!

I imagine you are sitting and reading this with bated breath! :) Or not. :)

We went back up to Oglebay. I kept the kids off of the nature trail only with great effort. They wanted to do the long trail today but we didn't have water or anything. The last thing I wanted to listen to was an hour of, "MOM, I AM THIRSTY!" :) So, I promised them a hike at 10 AM tomorrow. They started planning snacks immediately (as if we are going on a prolonged journey). They are so cute.

We went paddle-boating (and based on Sarah's steering she may NEVER try for a driver's license!). :) We chased the ducks and got misted by the fountain. A good time was had by all...except maybe the ducks. :)

We visited the Nature Center and learned about area birds. The kids were very excited to see a baby chipmunk. :)

Then they went "fishing" in the creek. Matt made sure to remind us to take our "FISHING CLUBS" with us. Hmmm... Poor fish, I would say! Clubs, indeed! :) They were really just practicing casting. Tommy goes to fishing camp this next weekend and is using an open-face reel for the first time, hence the need for practice.

Now for the crawdad rescue! The kids discovered the "salamanders" we saw yesterday were actually crawdads! WELL! They were OBVIOUSLY in DANGER living in an UNPROTECTED creekbed. The van was ransacked for appropriate capturing devices. I went along because I figured the odds were REALLY remote that they would catch any. Those things are FAST. Well, you guessed it. Two crawdads are now residing on our front porch for the summer. I did warn them that I would be releasing them back into the "wild" at the close of summer. OR, using them for BAIT! HA! :) You don't want to know the horrified shrieks that met that last statement! :) Fortunately, they just eat fish food, so this will be an easy "pet" to care for. I hope.
The kids think they are just fascinating and have named them Claws and Willie.

Happy Memorial Day from the Crawdad Rescue Center! :)