A moment of silence, please. The froggy boots have died.
The froggy boots that Mila has worn on nearly every hike for the past two years have finally bit the dust. One boot has a rather large tear right about the ankle, which basically renders it useless.
We discovered this after a pretty fantastic hike, but at the worst possible time.
On Friday, I wrapped up work just early enough to make a run to McConnells Mill. It's the girls' new favorite place to go, which is fine, but I prefer to be there when it's not a Saturday afternoon. I just prefer my peace and quiet to be filled by the endless chatter of my own children rather than strangers. Even at its most crowded, it's not THAT bad there, but solitude. Give me solitude.
Fridays late in the afternoon/early in the evening are perfect. Absolutely perfect.
So we wandered down a new trail, one which turned out to be OMG DIFFICULT. There was a lot of crawling up and down rocks and, basically, Mila thought it was THE BEST. She laughed hysterically at one point when I slid down a giant rock like I was on a sled headed down a hillside of snow, which HAHAHAHA. THAT HURT, MILA STOP LAUGHING.
It took me three tries to make it up the rock.
And then we headed down a normal-ish part of trail, eventually landing ourselves near the Mill. It was, of course, closed, but in walking past it, Mila suddenly noticed a small waterfall that ends with a pool of sorts. Of course she ran over to it and was all about jumping in.
It was deeper than she expected.
And the frog boots were suddenly toast. Instead of protecting her from the water, one boot betrayed Mila. Soooo much water got in.
Mila was not amused. She sat down and started peeling off her boots and then sadly poured a gallon? two gallons? A LOT of water out of her boot. The look on her face was pure sadness as she found why there was so much water in her boot. She looked at the hole, looked at me, and sadly declared, "My froggy boots betrayed me!"
These things happen when you have an older sister. You know words that you maybe wouldn't otherwise.
But the real betrayel was the fact that we were over two miles from the car. With each squishy step we took on the way back, Mila was reminded of the betrayal. There were a lot of tears, y'all. A LOT.