Day 3.133: Ticks and stones

Yesterday Exile #3 was determined to conquer these monkey bars at the Saratoga Spa State Park. On the third or fourth attempt she succeeded with sore hands but a very large sense of accomplishment. This morning she was similarly thrilled to swim a length of the training pool without any assistance.

We were all swimming - Exile #4 is also gaining in strength and confidence and E5N1 had a ball, throwing a hoop and jumping in (with a hand held) to retrieve it.

During the swinging yesterday, Exile #4 and E5N1 were playing nearby in a small stream.

The main activity was selecting 'special' stones from the stream-bed and lining them up.

At some point E5N1 was staring fascinated at his shoe. Exile #2 saw him and wondered what he was watching, "What is it - a bug?". "No, it's a teeny crab!". She immediately guessed - correctly - what it was he was watching: a tick - the first time we had seen one pre-bite - and a good reminder to keep up checking each other for them regularly.