Dg4 spent a lot of time looking for firewood. The campground was picked over for any good stuff. All that was left were small sticks. He spent a lot of time looking for those sticks. He would throw them on the small fire.
The smoke kept blowing in his eyes. All of the boys were running around with lights. The other kids had LEDs mounted on head harnesses. Dg4 had a hand held flashlight. He tromped around with the other kids. Whenever he went out of sight my heart stopped. I was relieved when we lay down that night. We said our prayer together and I made sure he knew the two rules; no snoring and no farting. Dg4 giggled and smiled. He knew the rules.
We explored that night and the next morning. Many tracks were found. Among the tracks found in the dry creek bed by dg4 were bear, mountain lion, and elk. They just looked like sneaker prints to me, but what do I know?
In the morning TB and I got a rope over the high branch of a eucalyptus tree. The boys swung from the sloped hill high out over the dry creek bed and back. Dg4 wasn't interested in the beginning, but one swing by me and then one by him changed all that. His last launch on the platformed rope swing was from as high on the bank as I could get him and with as much umpf as I could give it. The size of dg4's smile synced pretty well with the arc length of his swing.
We broke camp and drove to a cave. We spelunked deep into the earth to a clear pool. We crawled on our bellies, scooted, reached, leaped. The deeper we went the more we felt the humidity. We were holding our lights. Dg4 did well. At only one point was he scared. He and I went without the group. We left the kite string line that leads you to the pool and out again. A friend told me he went into this cave 3hrs deep once and only turned around because he was scared. Dg4 got nervous when we wandered away from the group and away from the line. I don't blame him. I thought better of going far.
On the way home dg4 and I talked about dragons. He asked me if dragons were real. I said, "no." Then he asked if dragons lived in the cave we explored. I said, "They would have to be small, like an alligator to crawl into the cave, some of the spaces were tight." Dg4 wanted to know how the dragons got there. I said, "The same way we did."
He was upset we left the cave. After all, he had seen dragon prints there. I told him we left because he was afraid and that we would come back. He wouldn't let it go. I snapped at him. Dg4 got quiet. It didn't mar the day or the trip. It was but a moment. I just didn't know how to get him off of it and it bothered me. It bothered me more that I snapped at him. I need to remember that.
One last thing; how does he get so dirty? I don't care that he does, but really, how does he do it?
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