August 11th--Attack of the ducklings!

In the late afternoon, the boys and I went to Lake Temescal for a little swimming fun. The boys had a good time, even though I mostly refused to get into the murky water with them, citing the fact that I was cold. I even stooped so low to point out the fact that none of the other parents were in the water with their kids. (Don't worry, it sounded ridiculous to me even as I said it)

After about 45 minutes of swimming, the boys were hungry. We went up to our blanket and pulled out some food.




Within 5 minutes, a mama duck led her two baby ducklings over.


Now, the birds had checked us out right away, but they quickly flew off when we shooed them away. The ducks, however, were not at all frightened by us, and were quite insistent that we share our picnic.



Anders got off of his towel, slightly concerned by the ducks' intrusion. Before we could even move, all three ducks descended upon his piece of bread. It was gone in moments. Anders, on the edge of tired, was pushed over the top, and had a meltdown. Suddenly, that piece of bread was precious to him, and he sobbed as they swallowed it down.



As I tried to calm him down, I also tried to get the ducks to leave us alone, as Anders was not very happy with them. I knew that in time I could explain to him how we were really in their house, and of course they wanted us to share. But at that moment, I just had to get him calmed down. We put all of our food away and didn't move much for a minute or two, and they finally wandered away to find food from some other unsuspecting family.