Skip to main content

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
💗💗💗






My other New Hampshire Entries:



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

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Greeley Ponds

We had been super lucky so far this vacation with the weather, but today Tropical Storm Isaias was making its way up the east coast and into our neck of the woods.  The good news was that it wasn't going to be in our area until late afternoon around 4:00 or 5:00 so we still had the majority of the day to get out and play.  Given yesterday's " 5 mile low-key hike " that ended up being 10+ miles, my kids had every reason to look at me skeptically when I told them this hike would be "easy" (I know, I know.  I wouldn't trust me either, but the hike really is rated as easy.  Promise 😉)  It runs partly along an old logging road, so it is soft, wide and not technical (rocky or root-y). You'll also notice that in the photo below the sign says Greeley Pond s , as in plural, more than one.  I don't know why, but I assumed it was only one pond.  Hikes are named imaginatively all the time, take for example a hike we did recently, Wolf Rock.  The sign sa...

Fraser Preserve, Great Falls, VA- Spring

They take conservation seriously there.  This amused me to no end. Conservation trash talk! Fraser Preserve is admittedly a new discovery to me and my family.  It was property given to the Nature Conservancy in the 70's that allows and encourages walkers to enjoy.  It doesn't have tremendous mileage in terms of trails, but you can easily extend your walk via their connector trail west into Seneca Regional Park via the fire road or Potomac Heritage trail or east via the Potomac Heritage Trail towards Riverbend (see my very detailed map below).  The actual preserve is rich in wildlife and lush vegetation.  Once you enter the park from the parking lot there is, what I named in my map, an unmarked "Obvious Dirt Trail" to the left.  Take it!  I have never seen so many toads and frogs in one place in all of my life.  I dubbed that "Frog Forest."  It is also a pretty spot to stop for a snack or to have a picnic lunch.  The "Obvious Dirt Trail"...

The White Mountains- Smart's Brook to Sandwich Mountain

Today was the first full day of our second trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire.  I have been dreaming of returning since the moment we left this summer.  I knew my husband had a week off of work in October and I thought it would be a wonderful time to go back.  Once we decided to make reservations, I started buying and stashing non-perishable grocery items, preparing and freezing meals, heck, I even had the boys' and my suitcase packed a week in advance. Our trip north went well, although we took an hour longer (11 hours as opposed to 10 this summer) and it was raining the entire drive.  Luck would have it that when we drove in to Waterville Valley, the rain stopped, the sun came out and we were welcomed back with a beautiful rainbow.  I took it as a good omen. Once we arrived, we unpacked the car and went for a 5 mile walk along the Mad River, ate dinner, and went to bed dreaming of more adventures to come.  The following morning we all woke up ea...