With the foot injuries and car repairs we've been dealing with, my poor children have gone just about nowhere for the past two weeks. When the van's in the shop we're pretty much limited to things within walking distance since I can neither drive Chris's vehicle nor can I fit all the children inside it--that is if I remember to get the stroller out of the van. Which I didn't.
By the end of week two of housebound status, Henry was begging to please go to the beaver park once we got our car back.
Wish granted.
He even got John dressed in an outfit matching his own in honor of the occasion. The beavers at this nature preserve are allowed to completely run amok which is pretty amazing. You can see in that first picture where they've taken over that bench with their epic construction skills. The beavers are nocturnal so we've never actually seen one in action before but this time Henry spotted one sitting just off the path in a little pocket he carved out of the crazy summer growth. I took several very unsuccessful pictures of the beast in which I was able to capture a bit of his fur and that's about it. I really wanted to pet it to see what his fur actually felt like since it looked like it might be pretty prickly but on the whole I decided against it. Wild beavers are probably not as friendly as Narnian beavers. Although I suppose Narnian beavers wouldn't appreciate being petted by strangers either.
The best part of the trip though was watching Henry ask Margaret if she wanted to hold his hand as they walked on ahead of us. He was really concerned that she not jump into the marsh. As were we all.
We ended up the morning by swinging by the pet store so that David could buy a fish bowl, food and water drops for his newest acquisition, a pair of marsh fish that he and his daddy netted. He's got big dreams of breeding them Henry Huggins style and then selling them for a profit. I'm supportive, especially since he's financing this endeavor with his own money. I'm not sure what the local market is for minnows though, maybe as bait? I guess we'll see......