In Our Element

Gram and Pap have a cottage near Reed City, MI. They graciously let us use it for a week. We were ecstatic! It was perfect for us. It sits on a lake and is surrounded by wildlife. The lake is busy on the weekend, but is very quiet during the week.

The kiddos spent the week catching many frogs and toads. Eamon named many of them along the way. There was Willa, Spika, Croaker to name a few. He was the master frog catcher of the county. Each amphibian had to be released after a short time. They learned the hard way that frogs don’t particularly like captivity. They surmised it was the use of the snail habitat instead of the frog habitat that lead to the death of two frogs.

Eamon and Aine also fished off of the dock. Each of them caught a fish having oddles of fun just casting and baiting the hooks. They used snail innards, found along the shore, for bait. They both became quite good at setting up the line and attaching bait. Their only disappointment was Heather’s reluctance to agree to a fish dinner.

Benton spent much of his time throwing things into the water from the dock and playing in the mud. He also relished setting the captive frogs and toads free. He reminded Heather of Eliot from E.T. He loved holding the frogs in his hands and helping catch the animals. He loved spotting the frogs and toads and carefully walking behind them down to the water.

We did take a daytrip to Ludington, MI while up north as well as a visit to nearby Reed City for some ice cream and the laundry mat. Most of the time was spent reading, exploring and relaxing at the cottage. It was a lot of fun.

No technology was an interesting phenomenon. The absence of TV was not a factor for our family, but the kids were surprised not to have the internet. The kept asking to look up things on the internet. They wanted to send Daddy a picture of their frogs, investigate what species they had found and sent emails to people about their exploits. Aine kept asking me to just turn on my laptop, so she could talk to Daddy.