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Bear Brook State Park

Wait a second.  A bullfrog?  Who's writing this entry?

We woke up this morning with a very excited younger son.  Today is the day we drove to meet his best friend.  You see, my youngest and his BFF have been friends for the majority of their life.  They were 3 when they met and had been pretty much inseparable ever since.  At the end of their Kindergarten year, his bestie moved to Boston for his father's job, and the boys have remained in touch.  We visited them last summer in Boston, and promised we'd be back.  In the meantime, the boys kept in touch via Zoom.  When we planned our trip to New Hampshire we thought it would be great to meet up for a day in the park, have a picnic, play soccer, etc.

We drove to the park and got there early.  It worked out perfectly because we got in our daily walk of 5 miles before our friends arrived (they have a baby, and like to sleep in- who could blame them?!)

Here's the tasty little morsel😍! 

Once we were all there, it was sweet to see the boys react to seeing each other again (in person) after a year.  Little Man was initially a little shy, claimed he was hungry and wanted to eat.  I think he was nervous.  Our eldest sweetly stepped in while his brother snacked and took Best Friend to kick a soccer ball in a nearby field.  Once he finished his snack and got over his excited nervousness, it was like they had never been apart.  After kicking the ball around for a bit, our oldest spotted a frog in the field.  Shocking, I know 😉!  And proceeded to give Little Man's best friend a tutorial on what type of frog it was (a Pickerel) and how you go about catching and picking up frogs in general.  Best friend was impressed and listened intently, and then they let the Pickerel hop along on its merry way.

Patient little Pickerel unwittingly a part of the tutorial 😆

After said tutorial we set off to find a place to hang out and picnic, and after consulting with a Ranger, we decided on a fishing pond.  It was a charming little pond with a fisherman or two, a picnic table, an archery range with some targets, and a kids' pond across a small gravel road.  It was perfect until we had a run-in with an ornery old codger.  I'll spare you the details, but unless you want an extremely lengthy and condescending lecture, for the love of God, don't attempt to put a child's fishing pole in their beloved fly fishing pond😒.

Beware of grouchy old men!

*Ahem*  At any rate, after the lecture, the kids wisely got the heck out of there and went across the road to check out the kids' pond.


Adorable!



The boys immediately set out on a frog expedition

and there were bullfrogs EVERYWHERE!




Oldest child was thrilled, THRILLED!

He immediately started noting the differences in color and patterns.
There were light green and dark green, spotted and smooth, etc.

He really wanted to catch the spotted one.  Those are rare.

He took his own photos with the camera.

What great shots!


The little ones got to catch their own frogs, too.
BFF got to put what he learned in action gently cupping the frog in his hands.

He was very proud.

Here are the two Besties reunited 😀

This final photo brings tears to my eyes and makes my heart happy.
I have the identical photo of them as maybe 4 or 5 year olds at a pumpkin patch.
Little Man acting goofy having his photo taken and his Best Friend smiling at him and his silliness
💗💗💗






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Comments

  1. Wow, lots of frogs! It's always good to get together with old friends.

    ReplyDelete
  2. So. many. frogs. Heaven for little boys!

    ReplyDelete
  3. So glad they got to see each other! Looks like a great time!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. It was wonderful to our them again. They make my heart melt!

      Delete
  4. It was an amazing day, great company, and we miss you already!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I am so happy watching how happy they are together! Like they were never apart!

    We miss you already so much!

    ReplyDelete

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