The Adventures of Herb, the Turtle

On Monday, after dropping the boys off at VBS, I happened upon a turtle at the end of our Church's driveway.  He was on the side of the road.  I normally, would've kept on going, but something made me stop this time.  I was going to take him over to the pond on our Church's grounds, which is where I am sure he came from.  But, I decided the boys might enjoy seeing him, so I put him in the van (on the floor) and decided to take him home!  Ha!

So, let me introduce you to Herbert, or as we liked to call him, "Herb", the turtle.

Isn't he cute?  ;)  And BIG!

Our plan was to take him to our neighborhood pond the next day.  We wanted to enjoy him for a day at our house.

Well, to our surprise, Herb had other plans!

This is where we kept him.  Up in the play house so Max couldn't reach him, and so he would be in the shade.

Did you know turtles can climb?!  Well, I didn't!  But, apparently, they can!

When we got home from VBS, I had Judd go and check on him.

To our surprise, he was gone!

No where to be found!

We were so baffled!

We starting thinking...what would we do if we were a turtle and got too hot?

I guess we would try to find water.

So, the little stinker must've climbed out of the basket and slid down the slide (Oh, how I wish I could've seen this for myself).

Next, he walked across the yard.

And, what do you know.....He found water!!

Can you believe that?!!!

I love that he was able to get what he needed on his own!  Amazing!

When we found him, our little Herb was making some strange noises, so we figured we better get him to the pond ASAP, or we might be having turtle soup for dinner that night!  ;)

I wish I would've made a video of him when he saw the pond.  He got so excited!  I always thought turtles were slow.  Well, not our Herb.  That little guy was super fast!  He ran and jumped in the pond so fast!  I think I might've even heard him go, "Ahhhhhhhhhhhh"!  ;)

Side note...On the way to the pond, we saw another turtle crossing the road.  He was smaller.  Mee Maw was with me, and she asked me if I wanted to stop and give him a ride to the pond too.  Ha!  I decided my turtle days were over.  I'll leave the rest of the turtles for Turtle Man to take care of!  ;)