Vacation Stories

Danielle is wearing rainboots in several of the pictures because of this day's events.

 

We went into Algonquin and stopped at a river to explore and fish. Danielle and I waded into the river while Tyler and Ron tried fishing in various spots. There were lots of froglets and the water was clear and cool. I wasn't in the water for long and then stopped to take pictures. Danielle explored quite awhile, chasing the frogs and minnows. When she got out of the water and was drying her feet off to put her shoes back on, she discovered this:

 

It's a leech and it was not on the ground; It was stuck on her toe! It hadn't actually latched on, but it was suctioned on enough that it was difficult to remove. We were able to laugh about it afterward, but she was pretty disgusted by it at the time. It was pretty gross, yet it was also rather interesting. Here is a video of it moving.

Gross but intriguing, right?! After this, she wore boots any time she thought there was a remote chance she might want to get in the water. She still shudders when we mention the leech incident.

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On the day we arrived, Ron and the kids were outside and I was in the house by myself. I was sitting on the couch and the house was quiet when I thought I heard chewing. I forced myself to ignore it. A couple days later, on the evening that Ron and the kids went fishing at dusk, Clara and I were in the house. Clara's ears perked up, and I thought I saw something move. I kept watching, and sure enough, there was a mouse. It was a very cute little thing - big round ears, big eyes - but did it really have to be in the house?? Clara watched it but wasn't interested in chasing it. I watched it for awhile and then got up and moved all our food into the refrigerator. When the kids came back up, they decided they would catch it. After all, none of us wanted it crawling into bed with us. It was very entertaining watching the kids try to catch it. To make a long story short, eventually Ron took care of it. The next day I heard another one. On our last day I watched one scurry around our bedroom door. That's why it was our last day. :)

On the way home when we were discussing our favorite parts of vacation, it surprised me that both kids mentioned the mouse chasing incident. :)