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My mom was looking for ideas for Jack’s birthday, so I suggested a pair of Crocs. He had some cheapies that were looking pretty rough and I thought he’d like a pair of new ones. I was right! He was thrilled when he opened his new Crocs and just as thrilled with the American flag and soccer ball Jibbitz.

However.

Jack, on occasion, can be a little rough on things. And, as everyone who knows him knows, he loves to take things apart and see how things work. There isn’t a lot to a Croc. (Don’t, you wish, btw, you’d thought of them first?) But, they do have straps. And, those straps come off. (Truthfully I never knew this. I never thought to inspect them quite so closely.)

Leave it to Jack to discover strap removability within the first 48 hours of owning a new pair of Crocs. Not a problem, except that he wasn’t able to get the strap back on. I did it for him. (Not hard, just a little too hard for a 6-year-old.)

Unfortunately, that’s not the end of the story.

Jack continued messing with the strap on his Croc (please don’t ask me why - I don’t know why) until he broke it. As you can see from the picture there wasn’t a lot of hope for repair. I was pissed. A brand-new pair of $30 shoes. And, my parents, who gave him those shoes, were coming to visit soon!

Surely you can replace the strap? Maybe there’s a junk yard type of place with old Croc parts? I figured I’d get something out of Google, but I was afraid it’d end up costing as much to replace the strap as to buy a new pair.

Well, guess what? I went to the Crocs website, checked out their FAQ and discovered that the company would replace the strap and ship it to me FOR FREE! Whoohoooooooo!

The strap was mailed immediately, and we received it on Friday. I put it on and we had a like-new pair of Crocs…

Just in time…

To lose one at the dump.

Yeah, the dump. Dan and Jack took two loads of tree branches to the transfer station on Saturday afternoon. I’ve never been there, thankfully, but apparently you back your car or truck up to a cliff or something and throw your stuff down… down… down… into the stinky pile. Then a pusher thing comes along and compresses it and shoves it into a box car, which is then transported to a landfill in someone else’s backyard.

Accident or experiment? I don’t know. I wasn’t there and his Dad wasn’t watching. But, somehow, one of Jack’s Crocs ended up over the cliff and onto the pile. Far, far away.

Dan came home and started telling the story and I immediately took note of Jack’s Crocs. Both of them. (Had they stopped off at the Croc part junk yard? )

No. Apparently the guy manning the transfer station was able to fish Jack’s Croc out of the mess using a long pole with a hook on the end. At first he had told them they were out of luck due to the location of the Croc on the pile. (?!?!?) “Anywhere but there and I could help you,” he told my boys. Put to a challenge, however, Transfer Station Man came through and found a way to retrieve it.

Whew!

Wonder what the next Croc adventure will be?

P.S. I did ask Dan to start carrying a camera with him at all times.  I know a picture of the Croc stranded at the dump would have made a much better picture than the one of the broken strap above.