Friday morning we went to my parent’s house for Christmas. We tried to be all family bondy and play board games before the rest of the family got there but my troublesome middle child completely lost his mind and stormed off in a huff when he lost.
Poor Hank…Henry does not like to lose. I mean…DOES.NOT.LIKE.TO.LOSE.
As usual the only thing to be done when tantrums and tears prevail was to send him to the woods. The woods can cure almost any ailment.
Hey You! Kid! Get thee to hiking!
“Tantrum? What tantrum?”
We walked up to Burritt Museum and explored around. There is a cave on one of the trails that is always of much interest to my minions.
The opening is just wide enough to squeeze through. I’m sure deep within the cave is buried treasure and gold and what not. Unfortunately outside the cave all I could find was an old Sponge Bob bandaid.
Darn it. It’s like that dang cheetoe in Arizona. Every time I see trash in the woods I hear my Outward Bound counselor saying ‘leave a place better than you found it’ and I feel this moral obligation to take the trash with me. I saw Spongebob lying there and said ‘Well, I guess you’re coming home with me.’
Henry looked at the cave and said “I am not going in there.” I asked him why and his response was simply “Bears.”
I’m pretty sure that no bears live in this neck of the woods but he would not be persuaded.
Oooh! Oooh! I highly recommend hiking with a seven year old boy – especially if you are way out of shape. See the good thing is that curiosity gets the best of them every few minutes and they stop and ask questions. So…you get to rest while you pretend to know the answers to their questions.
He did manage to snag an icicle from the mouth of the cave.
It made it back home more or less in one piece. You would have thought it was gold the way he came carrying it. And the way he was checking on my progress when I took over carrying it.
And we did make it to the top of the daunting Monte Sano Mountain.
“We have conquered the mountain. All 1,621 feet of it.
The moral of the story is don’t play board games with this kid – unless you want to end up carrying icicles and Spongebob bandaids down the mountain.