The Flooded Creek

We’ve been on adventures before to the creek behind our house and today turned out to be another adventure with a water twist.   My husband said the children were going a bit stir crazy with the continual raining and given the temperature of sixty-six degrees (unseasonable for certain) perhaps a jaunt down to the creek was in order. 

Rain boots and coats donned, we all four trudged carefully down the slippery slope that is the mountainous-feeling incline behind our house towards the creek we can barely make out when the leaves have fallen.    There were a few slips but we made it to the silt fence and then beyond to what is the “flood plane” around the creek. 

Flooded it was.   We’d been getting flood warnings from our phones and the television for two days and it was apparent what the words ‘flood’ and ‘plane’ added together meant because it was flooded all across the plane of the ground.    Fortunately for the three of us wearing rain boots (my husband got me some for Christmas) our feet stayed dry.   

The splashing in deep water was fun and the creek looked more like a fast-flowing river close to bursting over the top of the creek walls.    We made it close to our neighbor’s exit path but decided to go a new way home, mostly because my son found a mini-waterfall.   Exiting at the top into the back yard of one of our neighbors was much more challenging than we anticipated, mostly because of my daughter. 

We had her eye patched but she can’t see branches and there were not only branches, there were brambles.    We all got stuck and she was angry.   We made it out eventually and all wished we could have fit through the small apertures the dog was able to squeeze through without getting attacked by sharp thorns.

When we got back to the house it had stopped raining and the children wanted to stay outside for longer in bare feet.   My husband took down the holiday lights while I got rain jackets and boots cleaned up inside.   It was our rainiest adventure yet.   

The Big Boy Update:  My son called the neighbors children ’stupid’ to their face early this morning.   He lost screen time for the rest of the day.  He was mad at me, but I was madder.    

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter is much less interested in her iPad now that we’re asking her to spend some time during the day on it.    Keeping her in front of a screen is more challenging than I would have expected.