Marin Tender Tracks Thurs. May 26, 2016 Day 64

Waning Gibbous
Lake Lagunitas

Oh what fun we had this day!!!  Before I start from the beginning I am going to jump into the middle and share what I would consider  the biggest highlight  of the day: The children being able to see, feel, and spend time with a 12″+ caught trout! I will explain more later yet wanted to begin with this joy.

Now, let us find our way to that point…..

These last days are really about being with the places we have loved, explored, developed relationships with and enjoyed.
We began our circle with some of our new ways, songs and the old way of singing to the Directions. Their “smudging” time turned into going into the center with a friend, and by the end they were all hugging me as we smudged, again, together!!!
I had thought we were going to do something today with regards to their trees yet it was clear that bringing them into a big walking adventure would serve them far better so, off we went. Michelle led us in the direction of a place I don’t think we have been back to since Xander was with us. That means, December!

We needed to walk past the parking lot, over the once flowing small creek, checking out the water dock, taking turns throwing rocks down the tall culvert and seeing how they splash in the water.  Then, Michelle wound up with 4 kids up ahead, and I with 4 children more behind. My group spent a lot of time noticing so many wonders as we walked. As we walked past the MWD truck and boat launchers next to the Lake, Alara smelled something she didn’t like.  We began to investigate by way of smelling the wood, sap, saw that was used to cut the wood. We found so many different smells. Some we liked and some we did not. When we caught up with Michelle’s group she said they smelled the same thing and wound up doing the same thing too!!!!

Once we got to our sight it was here that they wound up meeting this very, very nice fisherman that had just caught his large trout.  When my group arrived the other children were holding the fish that was hanging by the hook and line. They were all taking turns and invited the other children to quickly come down and see!!!  The man was very gracious with letting the children “play” with this fish.  They did so for a very long time. The fisherman continued fishing. Layton thought for sure that the next fish he caught would be for them as well.   However after a time I thought it would be best if the fish was given a rest if indeed this man wanted to take it home to eat!  And, it was then that we all gathered together to eat ourselves. ( Layton was fine with him taking it. 🙂

He finally left, we said good bye. Lunch ended and then the mud play, water play and enjoyment of seeing the MWD boats go by leaving a fun wake for us to watch and see how long it took for the water to come back to stillness again.

LARGE mud balls were made and creations of rock and water made as well. Then we had to wash up, clean up and make our way back.

The entire day and journey was warming to behold. As the year comes to a close it is so grand to see how the children jump into their imaginary and creative play with ease and abandonment.  A gift that they have and will be able to utilize so much as they grown up and older.