Today we hiked the Y. As soon as the boys got home from school we jumped in the car and drove down to Provo. It was a beautiful fall day and the leaves on the mountain are just beginning to turn. A few rather funny things happened:
On the way up a particular peak looks very much like the Mighty Eagle character from Angry Birds. As you may recall, the boys attached my name to that bird because he is strong and mighty and full of himself and with a giant pot belly is well past his prime. I told them that was now known as Mighty Eagle Peak and it was mine.
In an exchange with David:
D- Now my Hufflypoof has touched the top of the Y and is a cougar.
Me- Your badger is a cougar? Which one do you think would win in a fight? (that debate went on for a while.)
D- Yep. I like them both. … but I like the badger a little more.
Me- What!?! You have to like the cougars more!
D- I like them both. Just one more than the other, I can have that opinion.
Me- That is true, you can have that opinion. You are just wrong.
D- You can be wrong.
Me -I can. … I just haven’t been yet.
D- Just two days ago you wore a Utah hat and went to the Utah game with Uncle Paul and Ava.
Me- You are right; I was wrong.
CMB saw the mountain and was ready to give up before we even began. His mother very kindly encouraged him to keep walking. I nearly put a boot in his rear end. Not sure which technique worked best. Neither were really effective, if I were to measure it. He was the slow and steady turtle and ironically, BG, DT and I stopped at the last turn to enjoy the view and guess who was waiting for us at the top?
DT and I were trucking up together. Then he started to lag behind a bit. I didn’t think anything of it because he can really move up and down that rather steep trail fast. So, I get up to the next switch back and am waiting with everyone else for a while (and chewing on Mackay a bit) and then Michelle says, “Where’s David?” He had never come up and really should have been there by then. Worrying that he had slipped while running or something she began back down the trail. She made it about half way down and no sight of the little big man. So finally, in desperation, she calls me. While on the phone with her I hear his voice up the trail a bit. He had lagged behind and then just climbed straight up the mountain, off trail. And it was steep. That kid trucked, scrambled and blasted his way up the hill. The best part was when we got back together and he and I had another conversation.
D- So Dad, when you become a rock climber you feel a sense of real accomplishment,
Me-Really? Tell me more.
D- Ya, it’s a pretty big deal to climb a mountain. You have to really hang in there. It teaches you perseverance. It teaches you to stick through it even when it’s hard and when you want to stop. You have to push on and do really good. That’s just life.
Wiser words are rarely spoken.
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