Today was creek day. Corwin has been looking forward to going down to the creek for months. He was disappointed that we didn’t go down yesterday, but I had promised that we’d make the trip today. Mom and Alice pleaded “delicate feminine sensibilities” to avoid the outing, but Mimi came along because, she said, she didn’t want me to be all alone when the rattle snakes attacked.
So the four of us set off. It’s a bit of a hike along some local roads, down a steep access road, along a mini-cliff, down some steps and there’s the creek. Charles didn’t like the walking much on the way there so I put him up on my shoulders. He definitely liked that. Mimi made me put him down once we started scrambling over the rocks near the cliff. As we edged along the cliff Charles dropped his car off the edge into the trickle at the bottom of the ravine. At least Charles didn’t hurl himself off the cliff after the car. Mimi actually convinced him to put the rest of his cars in a bag for safe keeping. I charged on ahead so I could backtrack up the ravine to get the car. It was actually quite pretty, with wide pool and tiny trickle down a moss covered fall.
We tramped down the river bank for a bit until I spotted a dam we’d built last year. It dams most of the creek with a small gap in the middle, which creates a very strong current in about 3 feet of water. Corwin let himself get sucked in a couple of times but he had a rock impact and decided not to do that anymore. Instead he’d try to jump on me as I went through so I would hit the rocks instead of him. He’s a clever boy, that one.
Charles mainly played on the edge of the creek, tossing in pebbles. He went out in the water a few times and I held him in the current for a bit, which he didn’t like the first time but thought was great fun subsequently. He didn’t like me floating through it because Mimi started yelling about how Dad was going to get swept away.
I decided to call it a day after a couple of hours because we had to get back for Ashlyn’s soccer game. Charles needed to be carried back to the sloping access way, but he walked from there all the way back to the house, which was a long, hard trip for a little boy like him. I was very proud of him.
P.S. For those with more patience, here’s a larger picture of Corwin in the creek.