who put an anaconda in the swift creek reservoir?

We had a close call yesterday.

We were at the park...the kids were running way ahead of me.

Down the pier.

At the end, there are steps that lead right into the water. (Who's idea was that, by the way?)

Joaquin was already in it.

Isabela was in it.

Diego was in it, with his shoes on.

I was just getting there, trying to figure out if I really wanted them doing this.

ALL OF A SUDDEN, a HUGE snake starts thrashing and writhing right at the bottom of the steps where my three precious kids were playing.

How big you wonder? Make you hand form a letter 'C'....that's how thick his body was. It was SO BIG I didn't even see its head.

The two older kids high-tailed it up the steps screaming all the way, leaving their two year old brother still tottering at the bottom of the steps trying to figure out how to get to the rocks.

I flew down there, grabbed his arm and pulled him up the six or so steps at once.

There's no picture to go along with the story, obviously, but the image is definitely burned in my mind. Really, I couldn't stop talking about until I figured out I could actually be scaring the kids more. We spent the rest of our time on the safe playground.

Later, as we sat on the bench at Rita's eating an ice cream, we thought how different our afternoon could have turned out and were thankful.