Wickiup Reservoir

    Since our move we haven't made it out much to see what there is around here. Everyone that we talks to always mentions how great all the lakes are around here, and the kids love to play in the water, we decide to give the lake shore a try around the first part of July. We went over to Wickiup Reservoir, since it's not too far from home. It was a nice warm summer day so we figured that water would be warm enough for the kids to get in and enjoy it like they enjoyed playing in the river in Reno.

   At first the kids didn't want to get in the water because of the yellow band around the edge of the lake. Keisha flipped out the most about getting in it, so after a little coaxing the all decided it was all right. The yellow band around the reservoir is actually pollen and not pollution. We had to deal with the pine tree pollen covering everything for a couple weeks, unlike most other plants pine trees don't depend on bugs or birds for pollination they just produce mass amounts of pollen and let the wind do the rest.

   The water was plenty warm for wading purposes and once they started looking around at what there was to find in the water they had a blast.

   We did see a couple of tadpoles but weren't able to catch any, but everyone looked good and hard.

   Charles' now loves to make his scary face for the camera anytime we take a picture.

   The highlight of the water was throwing rocks. Everyone had to throw as many as possible. Adahleigh almost hit us a few times with her impeccable aim. Keisha on the other hand had to find the biggest rock she could pick up and throw it in the water. She's lucky she came out with all her toes since some of the time the rock didn't make it too far past them. She chased that rock into waist deep water and almost went under a couple times trying to recover it, that's why she is wet all up her front side but the back is dry.

   One of the other great finds in the water was this snake. He came swimming up by just for the sake of scaring Ashley to death. He took off swimming once we tried to catch him, which caused the a little disappointment since the kids wanted to touch it. Probably better for the snake though, he probably wouldn't have survived Keisha's kung fu grip.

   While out at the reservoir we also saw a bald eagle flying around and a hawk snatch a fish out of the water and carry it off. There are definitely some benefits to living out in the woods.