Father's Day Weekend

Father's Day. A day to relax and treat your pop (and hubby) to something special.  My Dad choose a picnic up in the mountains above Pony.  It was a beautiful day, lots of sunshine, a light breeze and just a few bugs.
We found a shady spot just across the creek and packed our chairs, coolers, a table and a fire ring over there.  It made a sweet little camp spot.

My brother showed the kids and I how to start a fire with his homemade tinder, his knife and steel (that has some super special name that I can't remember!)

After a yummy lunch of hot dogs/brats and assorted salads, I decided to wade in the creek.

It was a nice temperature, not frigid, as most mountain springs are.

Gunner (our dog), who just turned 1, was not that excited about the water.  When we first arrived, he misjudged the distance across and landed face first in the water.  We all got a good laugh out of that.
So I decided to help Gunner learn to love the water! This was a great plan in my mind.
My other dog Bailey, who lives with my parents, was with us as well.  He has no problem with the water so we were tromping around in the creek, me coaxing Gunner in, when...

Something light tan/brown went swoosh right between my legs. It took me 2 seconds to leap out of the water and stagger up the bank.  Dogs scattered and I'm letting loose with a phrase that starts with "OH" and ends with something not appropriate for this blog. As all this happened, my eyes were glued to this long slithery friend who, probably just as scared out of it's wits, flung itself into the grass along the opposite bank.

(Insert here all of my family looking at me like I'm crazy as they have no idea what I am hollering about.  And my dad is chuckling, "What the matter with her?" as my hubby is just standing behind me a few feet.)

So here's the thing, I don't hate snakes. I hate being surprised by them. And while this one was away from me, it was also headed straight for Wyatt who was telling stories to Aunt Kissy at the campsite, not 10 feet away.

I yelled at my brother to save us from the snake.  He just keep on talking.  Wyatt had started towards me when he saw me freaking out. So I told him to stay put and Kissy got up to look in the grass next to them. Sure enough it had slithered right up there.  Cole finally got up and caught the little sucker.

It was a chubby (must be lots of frogs up there) and boy was it cranky!!!

 So we had some fun and then let it go.  Further downstream. Far away from camp.

And a great day was had by all!!

And if you want to read about another fun snake story...click here
MadCounty Mama