For spring break this year we spent an entire week at Grandma Pats in Thatcher. The weather was amazing in the 80’s the entire time. Because it is so cold in Flagstaff my kids and I felt like it was summer time and wanted to put on our bathing suits. They kept begging Grandma to turn on the sprinkler and Grandma kept telling them it wasn’t warm enough that they would all get soar throats. You see it isn’t hot to Grandma until it reaches 100 degrees outside. She didn’t understand that we Flagstaffers were sweating to death at 83. When Grandma ran to the store Aunt Melyssa and I set up a sprinkler and filled a big metal tub full of water and the kids played for several hours in the water. Grandma came back and shook her head, but filled up another big tub full of water for the kids. In hindsight we should have at least sunscreened them, but it was a fun time.
Grandpa Paul irrigated one night and in the morning he found a crawdad in the yard. He filled the metal tub with water so Clayton could see it. Clayton was exstatic and played with the crawdad all day. Then he and Avery went on a Ranger ride and came back with muddy shoes. I put the shoes in the bin to soak and took them out hours later to dry. Meanwhile Clayton cannot find his crawdad anywhere. Not thinking one moment about the shoes I tell him he must have lost it and he and Slade search the yard for the crawdad. They ask Grandma Pat and Grandpa if they have seen the crawdad. It is a mystery. No one knows what happened to the crawdad and no one is really concerned enough to do a thorough search with the kids. The crawdad is forgotten. Drying up in Grandma’s yard somewhere alone.
Two weeks later (today) I am doing laundry. I decide those yucky shoes of Clayton and Avery’s need washed. And what do I find? A gross dead crawdad. Yep the one drying up somewhere in Grandma’s yard is really molding in a bag in my laundry room. Been searching for that stink for two weeks now. That crawdad thought he found a nice cave in a shoe but he really found a casket. What a sad ride for the poor thing. I will never soak shoes in a crawdad tub again. I have learned my lesson. Didn’t even have the heart to tell Clayton I lost and killed his crawdad.
At the end of the week Brian and Chad took all the kids (minus Paisley) to Roosevelt and camped and fished. They all had a great time. It was a great relaxing Spring Break.
Rhoton Family 