"I'm Not Going That Way!"

We headed out as a family to do a short hike and have a picnic dinner Saturday evening.
It started with Sophie wanting to take the "climbing" way up the hill, detouring off the main trail to climb up the side of a sulfur spring to the horse trail. We've gone that way many times, so w/o much thought we sent Sophie and Myles up that way, while we headed up the main trail.
Well, Myles turned around and came back down the hill telling us he wasn't going that way. Not wanting Sophie to be alone, I told him that yes, he was going that way. I got the frown and foot stomp, saying again that he wasn't going that way.
"There's a snake in a hole, I'm not going that way!"
"Myles, Sophie just climbed up right there, there is not a snake in a hole, just get up the hill!"
"Mom, there's a snake in that hole right there, I'm not going that way!"

Well, by this time I think it hit both Brian and I that maybe there is a snake in a hole and he's not just being lazy,  so we went and took a closer look at the hill.

Yep, there's a snake in a hole alright!  Myles did a good job spotting this thing, Sophie had crawled right over the top of it.   We left him alone, but when we passed back by a few hours later, he was still there. Not convinced it was a rattler, we poked him with a long stick and his pretty little diamond shaped head popped up and went down into the hole, showing us his nice rattles. (I wasn't convinced at first because we were close to him and he never rattled and his coloring was darker, more like a gopher snake.)  He never did rattle, even after we poked him.

 You can kinda see how the trail she went up went right over the top of the snake's hole, Brian helped her down away from it.

 I wasn't sure what this guy was about to do, so I looked away.

 The kids wanted Brian to see the little pond where they saw the bullfrog earlier in the week. No bullfrog this time, but we did see that big pretty frog.

 You can see the frog on top of a rock under the water back there.

 Dinner time.

 You guys know how much I love me some old runners and this guy just made my day! He had to be mid to late 70's, was pretty hunched over, but he was getting it done, and had great legs!

 Horses coming towards us on the left, and leaving us on the right. 

 

 Those are my poor, poor legs that have been doing way more frog hunting than running this summer!

 Can you spot Brian in the above picture?

 There is so much poison oak right now, it's everywhere.  It is really pretty, though!

The above picture was from the first time we found the frogs, during a hike last week, but it was so green and pretty, I'm throwing it in here.

 I love this picture of Brian and Emma looking for frogs...surrounded by poison oak.