The weather this weekend was absolutely gorgeous. Sunshine, 70 degrees and hints of spring had everyone in a great mood. Sure, we all know the typical cold snap of Louisiana March is probably right around the corner, but we’ll take our faux-Spring days when we can get them. Knowing that perfect weather on a Saturday was too good to pass up, I texted J, rounded up my husband and kids, and we headed to the lake for some fishing and exploring.

We tried to catch a monster fish:

But we didn’t even get a nibble. After a very disheartening fishing effort, we abandoned our poles and set out exploring the shore. During the winter, the lake level was intentionally dropped, so we had huge new areas to explore.

We found a turtle meandering along:

But he was a little camera-shy. The boys were pretty frustrated with me because I would not let them take the turtle home. After several “but Mooooommmmm!!!” moments, I tried to explain all about conservation and environmental responsibility, but I don’t think they were very impressed with my attempts at educational content:

I tried to get them to pose for pictures:

And that was the best one I took after 30+ attempts. My youngest was hard-pressed not to pelt me with his ball after I kept trying to take some semi-orderly pictures of him:

I would have taken some pictures of J, but she threatened to beat me to death with my camera if I even tried. She and the turtle should be BFF’s.

After a fun-filled day, we came home, ate enough boiled shrimp and boudin for a small army, and enjoyed some time on the front porch.

The only drawback of our near-perfect weekend is that my youngest woke up very sick today.

If he can’t keep some water down soon, I foresee a trip to the doctor tomorrow. Does it make me a bad wife/mom that I am secretly glad that my husband will be the one to brave the hell that is our pediatrician’s office? It’s about time I got a pass on the three-hour wait-in-the-claustrophobic-room-while-listening-to-a-dozen-children-cry ordeal.

I’ll try to keep my gleeful relief to myself….riiiiigggghhhttt.