baby moose twins

Yesterday I told the kids that I'd take them one at a time (special attention time) to Starbucks for smoothies or whatever they wanted (I had about five gift cards in my purse -- one of them only had $0.08, but I found one that had $15). So Joel and I went first, timing how long it takes to walk from our house to Carrs going the "Northern Lights route." We got our drinks (YUMM!!!) and then timed how long it takes to walk from Carrs to our house going the "Muldoon route." The Northern Lights route was a nicer walk, by the way, just in case anyone cares about that. We had a very nice walk, some nice conversation -- it's always a hoot to talk with an imaginative ten-year-old!

Then it was Luke's turn. I knew we were "in for it" when a block down the road he asked me if Joel's feet had hurt on this "long" walk. Oh dear!!! I asked him if his feet hurt, and he said just a little -- mostly shin splints caused by the difficulty he has raising his feet up to start each step on his heel. So we slowed down the pace quite a bit to make him more comfortable. The real excitement came, though, when we walked down the street that connects to Northern Lights and saw two moose babies crossing the street, heading for a nearby yard full of flowers. Luke started to flip out, but I reminded him that they were just babies. We didn't need to be afraid of babies, we only needed to be afraid if we saw their momma -- OH NO!! There's the mother across the road! Someone had told me a long time ago to NEVER get between a mother and baby moose! So we waited a couple minutes, but then the mother started to cross the street, too. We turned around and started to walk back home, but then saw that the mother moose was going to her babies. The baby moose were SO funny when their mother got over to them. They started playing -- jumping around just like little kids. So Luke and I went ahead and walked to Starbucks and got him a treat -- which he took about three drinks of and decided he was full and didn't really like anyway. What a waste! Next time, he'll have to get something that I like -- he ordered a strawberry-banana smoothie. I HATE banana drinks -- they taste like vomit to me (I'm sure everyone is thrilled to know that little tidbit).