Speaking of Meese

On one of our jaunts up the canyon, we invited Sam and Annie's family to come along. Sam is Jesse's cousin for those who don't know. Anyhoo, we tried and tried to find a regular picnic area but they were all PACKED. So we actually went further up and stopped at a camp ground. There was a fire ring but it was all dirt and no table. I'm telling you this so you're not thinking I'm absolutely crazy for putting my kids in crocs. I was expecting the nice PAVED picnic areas. So after some creative thinking on how to serve out the food, we all settled in...

The kids were VERY excited about the hot dogs. SOOO excited that they actually FORGOT to eat them!

Man that double stroller comes in handy. AND it can off road! (not really)

The kids were playing tag in the trees. Don't think I didn't know that was an accident waiting to happen. Ok nothing happened. Except....


Emily and Andrew found a GREAT patch of dirt to play in. And no, there was no running water.

Good thing we brought baby wipes.

So we were hanging out and eating and laughing and talking when all of the sudden.....
We spotted a Moose and her baby walking across that parking area and into the trees. Now, I'm not sure what most of you know about Moose, but when I was younger and we were going to a family reunion in Montana, we were told about the dangers of these guys. And how they can kill you. And how if you ever come across the path of a Mama and her baby, you're dead. Seriously, this is what they told us. I have a deep and un-abiding fear of Moose. Thank you Uncle Steven.

Seriously... Jesse grabbed the camera and ran over a ways and started taking pictures. I was panicking, looking at my children and trying to decide how I would grab them AND the stroller and make it to the car. I didn't know what to do. After all, if I made it to car, I wasn't necessarily safe in there, I needed to get the keys from Jesse, who was busy taking pictures, so I could tear on down the mountain.

Everyone else was saying " Oh look at the baby! Look how cute! Look how it's brown and the mama's black!" Meanwhile I was looking to the next camp to see if they had a shotgun. (you think I'm kidding)

They kept walking and went on their merry way through the trees. I was still FLIPPING OUT. I was getting ready to pack up. But the kids wanted to do s'mores. So I was facilitating that as fast as I could.

I really had no idea how this happened. That would be marshmallow in her hair.



Oh yes, isn't this soooo relaxing and fun? And THEN....

See me? See what I'm doing? See how I'm looking off to the side? It's because I had just seen the DADDY MOOSE! And it was NOT far away.

It walked over there...

And then turned toward us and I was FLIPPING OUT! It literally got withing 10-15 feet of Jesse, he was about to take a picture when I said through gritted teeth " Don't you dare move!"

Jesse waited a minute and the big guy kept walking. You can't see it but this guy had BIG antlers.

WHY IS EVERYONE SO RELAXED??!!??!

"Mommy what's a moose?"
" Well I don't know much, but if you ever cross paths with a mama and it's calf...."

I kid, I kid.

But seriously, I was outta there in about 2 seconds flat.