It's always fun until...

It is a beautiful day here--almost 80, sunny, puffy white clouds. So, on the way home from school we passed a park the kids like to go to and they asked if we could stop. Well, asked might be too serene a word for the screeching and pleading that actually happened. But I was happy to stop for a while on such a fabulous day.

The last time we were there, the kids discovered a little creek with a plank across it and proceeded to get their sneakers soaking wet. So, of course, they asked if they could go in the water (again, that might be too staid a description!).

I think their mouths dropped open when I said just to take off shoes and socks first. At one point, my youngest said, "Well, how are we going in it then?"

That is when I decided that they would definitely go in because is it possible that my 6 year old has never been wading in a creek? The ocean, yes. The lake, yes. But just a random sun-dappled creek with tons of flat stones for skipping? It was time.

They had the best time wading around, trying to skip stones, and then the big discovery--clay. Real clay and a large flat-topped rock just waiting to be used as a potter's wheel. The kids just scooped up gloppy handful after gloppy handful, constantly calling to me to show me their clay-caked fingers.

It was so awesome.

You know the old saying, though--it's always fun until someone gets hurt?

And that's where we ended up. Jill slipped and put out her hand to catch herself and sliced her hand right where the finger and palm meet--ouch! When I looked at it, it seemed a little deep to me.

Now when I looked at the water, instead of seeing this fresh, sparkling little creek, I instead saw a stagnant, bacteria-infested swamp.

So, the end of the fun (for today). Grabbed everyone's shoes and socks and headed to the car.

Did some major cleaning and sterilizing of the cut when we got home. I think it will be ok without stitches--it seemed to be closing up a little. So we're going to clean it some more before bed and hope that this is just the normal type of thing you might get when you're having a lot of fun. Right?

It didn't seem to dampen anyone's enthusiasm, though, since they all asked if we could go back tomorrow!