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Extreme Shepherding

So, this is a slightly convoluted path, but I was reading about Google launching their new live search results feature. To see it in action, I went to the site and entered “Tiger Woods.” Yikes. Well, the live search worked, but the results were depressing to say the least. So then, while showing it to Michael, we decided to pick another top news item. To do this, we visited the top search trends page.

Looking at the top 40 searches in the last few hours opens a window into the soul of humanity. Unfortunately, this window doesn’t say much about us that’s very uplifting. But, there was this gem, lurking at number 30: Extreme Shepherding.

Well, there’s simply no way to avoid following that link. Here’s where it led:

Lily’s Creek

lilys-creek

After hiking through the Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Thursday, we stopped on the way back out of the park and walked down to a clear (and very cold) mountain stream. The kids had changed out of their boots and into their Crocs and were walking around on the rocks in the creek. Fearful that they might slip and fall in, I told them all to take off their shoes and walk around barefoot. I have some priceless video of this… the water was probably 50 degrees.

Well, it was only a matter of time before it happened: Lily, while standing fairly close to me, slipped and fell. She got up, slipped again, and I grabbed her on the way down. She slipped again while we were trying to get/keep our footing but I still had ahold of her, so she was okay at this point. (I should also note that the water was moving pretty fast and was probably 3 feet deep right next to where she slipped. Oh, I was also holding the video camera through all of this… tense moments!)

She was crying, not because she was hurt, but because she was terrified. After a few minutes, she got herself under control and we walked up to the car to change out of her wet clothes. I mentioned while we were walking how proud I was of her because she dealt with it and got over it very quickly. It was impressive.

Later that night, we were sitting in a restaurant and Char asked the kids to turn over their placemats and draw a picture of their favorite thing from the day. Of course, Jack drew picture of Lily falling in the creek and crying. (He’s such a putz!)

When we asked them to share their pictures, Lily got pretty bashful and started crossing things off and hiding it. It was clear she didn’t want us to see it, so (of course!) we forced it out of her. To my surprise, she had also drawn a picture of her falling into the creek. Except in her picture, though she was dripping wet, she was smiling. She had also included me in her picture holding on to her. She wrote, “The best part of my day was falling into the creek because Dad was there to catch me.”

Here’s a picture of what will always be known as “Lily’s Creek.”

It’s cold, but not *this* cold

Jack walked into the room this morning and asked for my iPhone so he could check the weather. “Dad,” he said, “it’s minus twelve.” I really wanted to crawl back into bed.

So I go out to start the car and it gives me one of those, “ooohoooohoooohIdooon’tknoooowifIwaaanttooootakeyooooounaywheretooooday” sounds. It eventually started, but wasn’t happy about it. Like I said, it’s really, really cold.
And then I received a link to this video, in which two guys are taking bowling water off an outdoor stove, tossing it into the air, where it instantly turns into snow. Boiling to snow in about two seconds. 
THAT is cold. I’m surprised those guys got out of bed.