Adventures on a Summer Night........

This Thursday my husband, the boys and I all decided to go for a bike ride and pick some wild blackberries. We had such a great time and quite an adventure. The boys kept their eyes out for wild berries while we rode through the bike paths in our local forest preserve. We had a good amount of berries and then my five year old spilt part of a basket of them. He was pretty sad, but we convinced him a whole bunch of animals would be very happy when they found that special treat. By the time we were done picking all the berries we found, we had enough berries for a few desserts and that didn't include the spilt ones!
While we were riding along a women was on the road with her hazard lights on. She she started yelling down something to us. My husband ran up there to find out what was wrong. There was a turtle on the road that she was afraid was going to get run over. My husband saved the day and took the turtle back to it's watery home. I actually learned a few things about turtles.
1. The "fact" that they are slow, is actually a myth.
2. Their necks are grossly long and they give a whole new meaning to "oh snap!"
3. UGLY! U.G.L.Y. See picture below.

This is my husband carrying the turtle. He was acting all nonchalant about the whole thing. Then he gets (I have just decided the turtle needs a name, let's call him Mertle) Dear Hubs gets Mertle to the grass and sets him down. Problem is the grass is pretty close to where Mertle almost had a run in with afternoon rush hour. I say, "Uh, honey, why did you set it down there?" He says, are you ready for this, "The turtle saw the grass and got really excited so I thought I would put it here." Let me translate that for you. "This thing is freaking ugly and I wanna get as far away from it as possible but I need to look manly so I will come up with any excuse to put it down." The best part, he adds, "Didn't you see it's arms flapping, that means it was happy to see the grass." Uh sure honey!

Since I am telling you the stupid thing my Dear Husband says. I better tell you what I said too. My husband and the screaming to save the turtle lady are having a conversation way up on the bridge. I can only make out part of the conversation. From where I am I hear, "Look it has a leash on it." HUH? Ok, perhaps someone's pet turtle made a run for it while out on a walk. Possible? Sure. Crazier things have happened. What she actually said, "Look it has a leech on it."




See, I wasn't kidding. UGLY. And to add to the ug-factor That neck comes out about four inches. Ewww...................

We also had a tag-a-long bike riding guest. During one of our berry picking stops, my two year old says in a happy voice, "Daddy, you have a spider on you. It's big." Sure enough, my husband had made a friend of the eight legged variety while leaning into a berry bush. It was climbing up his head till he started dancing around and flicked it off (really my husband is not a wimp, he has jumped out of planes and everything). Here is a picture of his new arachnid friend, but it appears much smaller than it was in real life.

After quite a few mosquito bites, a basket full of berries, saving a life and making a new friend, we went home and had our berries with some whipped cream. It was a great night! The kind of night I plan to have more of.