Memorial Day

So, great holiday, very noble, all that.  I don't mean to diminish any of the higher meanings of Memorial Day, but at our house it meant everyone was home all day.  And when you've got a boy like Scott, you need to run him down.  So after an early morning water-gun fight in the backyard, we went on a "nature walk."  Previously, Mike took Scott on a nature walk near a small stream, and Scott stuck his fingers in the water and licked his fingers.  We tried to not do that.

We decided to go around Malletts Bay, a fairly straight shot if we were birds, but fairly roundabout because we're not.  We needed the map.

Scott loves maps, and will identify many foldable documents as maps, even when they are not.  He helped tell us where to go.

Oh yeah, Dean was there, too.  I took this picture with my arm over my head, camera backwards. 

We ended up at a little state park, the park ranger told us that one trail to the water was "stroller accessible" so we broke out the shiny new double stroller for the first time.  Scott is a bit on the large side for a stroller, but since it was 1/2 mile away and we wanted to actually get there, we locked him down.  When we got started, he shouted that he needed to look under logs to see if worms were there, but eventually kicked back and enjoyed the ride.

The beach!  And you know what?  That water was pretty cold!  Turns out it takes Lake Champlain a while to warm up.

Mike helps Scott balance on a log in the water.

Looking for frogs up the riverbed.  Mike carried Scott because, as Scott said, "There's so many rocks, I can't even walk on them."

Sidenote: the next day, I took the boys to a closer, smaller beach with no frogs.  Scott sang "Having fun at the beach with Mommy and Broey," and then asked me, "Remember when we went on a nature walk to the beach and looked for frogs in the riverbed?  Let's look for frogs in the riverbed!"  He found it hard to believe that there was no riverbed and no frogs.

Since it was a crazy vacation day, Mike promised Scott a creemee on the way home.  What's a creemee?  A softserve ice cream cone.  Something that is not special in Utah.  But in Vermont it is a magical thing that only comes out in the summer, and if a convenience store has creemees, it puts a giant sign in the window.  The first store we stopped at did not have a sign.  Mike went in, while Scott waited and wished for a purple one.  Mike came out, no creemee.  The next store had a sign, but they were all out of chocolate.  Scott saw the picture in the window and got very excited, and didn't understand why he still didn't have a creemee.  On the road to the third place, Scott's monologue was like this:

"But I want a creemee!  Where's the creemee store?  I neeeeeed a creemee!"

Finally, success.

Scott licks, says "I love creemees," licks again, all on one side. When that side was mostly gone, he turned it around to the chocolate side. "There's purple on the other side!" (Hey, it could be purple)

Do not attempt this without a lot of wet wipes.

Even with the sugar high, we got Scott to take a nap.  Afterwards, it was time to play with water in the backyard.  It was about 67 degrees and very windy.  Scott got an inflatable carwash at his birthday party, so Mike set it up.

The garbage bags over winter coats did not keep them dry.

Much like his dad, Scott is immune to discomfort when he is having a good time.

And there you have it, a Memorial Day with no memorials or barbeques or hamburgers.  Mike said that Scott will associate Memorial Day with water fights in the backyard with Dad.

As always, here's the video of everything you just read about, but with 100% more frogs! 

Comments

[Lwin's]

Love it! I'm sure Charles would have tried the garbage bag cover trick as well :)

We hope to see you this summer sometime!

love,
Laura, Charles, Nathan and soon-to-be-Lizzie

[Nancy]

That car wash looks like so much fun.

And you're brave to let him have ice cream in the car, I'm much too anal for that.

[Loganites]

Looks like Scott is almost ready for his own GPS so he can find where marbles go. Too bad it was so cold--the wading looked really fun too. And we're so glad to see that Scott does occasionally indulge in some junk food! Erin asked for some ice cream after watching Scott eat his.

P.S. From Ian: The "frog" has bumpy skin like a toad, not smooth skin like true frogs have.