Yesterday being Spring Break and St. Patrick's Day, I felt obliged to do something with the children. See, it did start out with innocent intentions. I thought the kids and I would make some Blarney Stones. (Macy keeps calling them Barney Stones). Just a nice simple activity to kill some time. I had envisioned us wandering by a nice babbling brook, picking out the most beautiful, smooth river rocks to paint and decorate. Knowing the ratio of children to me, I called my mom to go with us on our glorious outing to ensure the baby wouldn't fall into the water.
Soon after mom arrived we headed out. The first disruption in plans was the lack of a river in the nearby vicinity. Funny, I guess I thought we lived in the mountains in a beautiful part of the country. I guess sometimes my imagination gets the best of me. I was snapped back into Amarillo, Texas reality as soon as we set out. After a few minutes of brainstorming, we came up with a few glorious ideas like alleys and Rock Town (Macy's idea). NeeNee mentioned Quail Creek, which made me think of grandma and grandpa's house in Bishop Hills. They have a large, rocky hill behind their house. So I had to trade in the stroll by a babbling brook in for a rocky, hike with 3 kids. Oh well, still gets us out of the house.
On the way to the rocky hill, we crossed over a dried up stream. Hey, maybe it did use to be a nice little brook. As we looked down we saw a lot of smooth, river rocks. It looked like this was going to be it. No hike or stroll, just a rock run! I thought, oh the kids could just jump out, pick out their favorite, and on with the activity. Well, first we had to park. It just so happened that there was a parking lot next to the dried up creek. So we parked along the curb, and I jumped out. I suddenly realized that this unlevel terrain was not a good idea for NeeNee or Lane. They decided to keep each other company in the car.
I think it was about 34 degrees. Great weather for rock hunting. Brrrrrrrrrr Well, anyway, on with the gathering. I got Macy and Branson out and off we went. We went right to the edge of the curb, and realized there was about a 4 foot drop off. We looked down and knew it was too far to jump and at the same time our rocks were down there waiting. Macy refused to let me put her down. Who could blame her? It looked like a cliff to her. We walked to the other end hoping for several things. One not to freeze to death and two a nice route to the rocks. There was less of a drop off at the other end. So we started to make our way down. As we stepped off we saw the weeds. The weeds that looked small from the road, were huge, some taller than Macy. (Taller than she would have been had she let me put her down!) Once we pushed the weeds aside we saw the trash. It was absolutely disgusting. There were bottles, cups, napkins, fake vampire teeth, unmentionables and more! I was revolted that this much trash could be in one place without actually being a trash dump. It probably passed disgusting several years ago. Without thinking Branson started picking up rocks. Leave it to a little boy! Guess what, they were covered in ants. Hmmmmmm who would have thought that ants would like to live among so much trash. Well the ants were very cold too. Hardly moving in fact. So we brushed them off, gathered a few and ran for the safety of the car. We were happy to be back. NeeNee and Lane were surprised to see us so quickly. Needless to say, we got out of there. On the way to our next stop, we talked about people who didn't put their trash where it belongs. I think our outing impressed upon the children what we meant. I don't think they understood litter and pollution until they saw it first hand. So our nice babbling brook, turned into a a venture of more global topics. I never thought of Amarillo as really trashy, but then again, I guess I never looked.
Hey, at least it killed some time!
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