Catch of the Day

On Friday night we met up with one of Ryan's old mission companions, Elder Thornton, (I guess his name is Jeremy) and his cute family at a little park in Syracuse. Lucky for us, the park is equipped for fishing, feeding ducks, and good old fashioned climbing around on picnic tables, perfect for toddlers. The only part of this park that wasn't quite perfect for toddlers was a sparkling little pond, far more enticing than forbidden local dangers, such as, say, THE ROAD. Well, L & M did pretty well for the first three hours, but by the end of our visit, that pond was looking better and better. Ryan and I, suckers we are, finally let our guards down and stopped tackling our girls to the ground every time they got within a foot of the water. What followed was a bit of harmless toe dipping in the water, splashing around, and always, hysterical laughing. Needless to say, L & M's innocent fun took a turn for the worst, as they started going deeper into the water. As luck would have it, Maddie crossed over the cliff that separated the extremely shallow water from the deep dark water by matter of inches. The next thing we know, she is totally submerged! I, being the closest adult, half jump, mostly trip into the water to pull her out, sputtering, choking, coughing, crying. Maddie was only under the water for a couple of seconds but enough to give us all a scare and bring a dramatic , soaking wet end to the night's fun! Before we could even catch our breath, Londie was back in the water. On the way home we had a little talk about a fun new summer hobby for our family.... enrolling in swimming lessons!