Jennifro

Old Fashioned Fun

Today was fun.  It was "take your kid to work" day so my kids spent the first three hours with Daddy-O down near the river.  He loaded boats in preparation for a day trip while the boys gathered sticks and whacked down weeds, and Natalie built a cute little fairy house in the base of a tree.  All in a day's work.  Probably pretty different from what most kids did at the office. By noon, Nick was off to some outing so it was a now time to go to mom's work place.  I just didn't have the heart to force them into laundry or other grunt labor, so I called Jill to meet us across the street for a hot dog at Poole's Store.  A step back in time, I'll tell you.

This rustic old place was a favorite of Nick's when he was a kid.  It's a family owned (all red heads) business that sells everything from animal feed and dried pig ears, to popsicles and hot dogs. We ate by the river then took our ice cream across the street to Riley's Lock.

 

We forgot our cameras so I'm borrowing (thanks Google!).  We went for a fun walk (run! in Camille and Caroline's case) on the tow path and saw lots of fun creatures along our way. Mostly pairs of water turtles floating on wood in the ponds, enjoying the sun.  We hoped for the best as the girls ran over the bridge--"stay straight, stay straight!"

We ended up at a historic stone cutting mill made of Seneca Stone--it was all overgrown with ivy and looked like something out of Indiana Jones.  This is the same mill and stone that they used to build the beautiful red Smithsonian buildings in DC.  It would make a gorgeous setting for photos, but as I mentioned we forgot.... Well, there was lots of poison ivy everywhere so I was a bit of wreck considering I recently recovered from a miserable bout. While we were exploring, we heard what at first sounded like laughter, then PANICKED SCREAMS!  I looked over and Nicholas and Mitchell were running like the devil was after them--stumbling through brambles and what not.  I started yelling "what's wrong?!" thinking they'd seen a cougar or something (kidding).  They both were horrified and in tears--Nicholas (who apparently has his father's phobia) said, "THERE WAS A SNAKE ON THE PATH--A HUGE ONE--RIGHT BY ME!! IT WAS THIS BIG AROUND!!"  Mitchell was simply yelling through the tears, "My croc! my croc! it's back by the snake!"   

Never fear, Mother is here!  I bravely rescued the croc, after seizing the snake by the neck, shaking the life out of it and flinging it headlong into the woods.   Take that--take your kid to work day!  Domestic engineering.  Pure excitement.