A day with the boys

Ben was away for a couple days over the weekend, so Saturday was truly a day with the boys for me.  It started with a good morning phone call from daddy. 

 Then we spent a couple hours at another auction in Goessel. It was fun, but also kind of sad to visit with Wilbur - one of the men in town that has been there my entire life (same well kept house, immaculate yard and garden, cute out buildings) - and see him watch the belongs of his life sold at bargain prices. The entire place was up for auction today, house and all. I've loved the house my entire life and the inside did not disappoint. The new owner has quite the gem on their hands.
From Goessel, we headed for Sand Creek behind Bethel.

 The boys wore their water shoes and brought boots along, too.

 The boys ran ahead of me and when they caught sight of the creek and saw that it had water they yelled and hollered back to me, "Mom!! There's water!!"

 The best part of the creek (for me) is how shady it is. Each time we've been there it's been cool and shady, like a complete escape from the real world. The trees seem enormous there.  Perhaps it's because so many of them have roots showing instead of having them all hidden underground.

 Levi was braver today in the creek then I've ever seen him. The water shoes didn't last long and then he was slopping through the muddy muck and water barefoot without any trouble. I couldn't believe it!

 Noah was brave too. He's usually very, very aware of where there might be animals or whatever. But today he led Levi around and was determined to "explore".

 We ventured further north today than we usually go and found a tree across the creek. Just right for these two goof balls to sit on.

 On our way back to the bridge we came across this guy:

and the most surprising thing of all happened - we all kept our cool and didn't freak out. I think we all wanted to just run for it, but we didn't. We walked just as calmly as we had been and it all worked out just fine.
We had a wonderful day together. Very little fighting, lots of good playing, very little TV watching (always a bonus in my books) and even weathered a thunderstorm without Levi shedding any fearful tears. We're still ready for Ben to come home, though! :-)