Catch and Release

It's the beginning of last summer...

We had a turtle show up at our doorstep.  John Reagan and Evie wanted to keep the turtle and put it in the kiddie swimming pool.  So they fixed the turtle up.  The only problem was this was not an aquatic turtle.  When Daddy noticed the turtle swelling, he positioned a log "just so" for the turtle to escape.  Evie was devastated!  She went on and on and on and on (get my drift?) about this turtle telling everyone who would listen. 

Then came birthday time...

Uncle Anthony decided it would be a good idea for him and Aunt Paula to give Evie a turtle for her birthday, tank and all.  How sweet of them!

 A year later...

Mommy is tired of taking care of this turtle.  Do you know how nasty turtles like their tanks?  Too nasty for Mommy!  I moved the tank outside.  At this point, we had been working for months on convincing the kiddos to release the turtle into the lake.  We had been telling them how he needs to go "find a family."  Finally just before Evie's 4th birthday they decide the turtle would be better off in the wild.

Off we go as quickly as possible...

 Turtle took off like a bolt of lightening!

 We had to take what turtle food was left and dump it for turtle.  They wanted to make sure he was well taken care of.  Here they are taking turns dumping the food.

Since Averi somehow missed all the picture taking, I figured I would add one in for good measure.

As you can see she could have cared less about the festivities of the day!

We are happy to report there has been no sadness about turtle's release and very little talk about turtle.  For anyone who knows Evie, you know this is a BIG deal!  She still talks about the cat who ran away almost 2 years ago, and we STILL have to pray for the cat's return.