We went on a great hike over the weekend with some friends. The man who owns the property next to them had told them about a hike to a 100 ft. waterfall.
Malia and Sadie came along with us on the hike. These sisters are the kids' favorite! Malia is hands down their favorite babysitter and she blesses me by watching the kids a few hours a week for free. (I keep telling her I hope she has someone do the same thing for her when she has kids so she will know how truly grateful I am.)
Sadie was the only one brave enough to really get wet.
We have had so much fun getting to know the Terrell family. Tyler met Jake and Deana in Paso Robles a few years back and they just moved up here last summer. It has been grace upon grace for me to meet friends that are in the wine industry and are Christians.
On the hike down to the waterfall Jake took precautions to point out all the poisonous oak. I, as always, was on the lookout for rattlesnakes. When we reached the waterfall there were all these cute little amphibians swimming in the water. We thought they were salamanders and the kids were all very interested.
When we got home we were looking up animals in our area on the internet and decided to find out what these little guys were...turns out they were Rough-skinned Newts. The description said , "Warning: The skin secretions of the Newts of the genus Taricha contain toxins similar to those found in pufferfish liver. These are among the deadliest natural toxins yet discovered. A healthy adult will die from eating just one Newt. Care should be taken to wash hands thoroughly after handling Newts."
So while were vigelent about some of the poisonous flora and fauna we unknowingly let the children pet the most danger of them all.
