Tuesday, August 18, 2009

snips of snails and puppy dog tails

when you tell a 7-year old boy that he can be in charge of the days fun, that he can call all the shots, he can take the lead - be absolutely sure that you can handle the adventure. 

this boy takes the lead very seriously.  we packed a picnic, blanket, and the necessary g.i.joe guys, and headed to the mountains for the afternoon.

Joes
We took whatever trail he wanted, hopped on only the rocks he wanted, and limbo-ed under fallen trees.

Limbo

i kept saying, "punky, slow down!" - "keep yours eyes open" - "stay close to me!"

to which he finally replied, "mom, don't be such a sissy, i'm not gonna get hurt!"

three steps later, he landed next to this:

Rattler 1
Rattler 2

a 3 1/2 foot long southern pacific rattlesnake.  she was trying to move out of his way, but alas, he was moving faster than her.  luckily, he recognized the tone in my voice when i said "punky - FREEZE!" was not a tone to disobey.  i told him to slowly take a big step backwards.  he did exactly as i asked without question. it was terrifying and exciting all at the same time.
 
needless to say, we decided not to hike any further, the area we were in was pretty remote.  so we found a nice big, flat rock surrounded by water (it was the only rock he'd sit on for fear of more snakes!) and ate our picnic.

Trail Blazer

after that, we took a relaxing, snake free, scenic ride on the ski lifts and giggled about how scared we both were!

Lifts
View from the top

that night as i was tucking my tired adventurer in bed, he told me how much fun the day was, and made me promise we would never do it again!

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