Smarty's Heroes

I have to tell you about 3 of the most amazing uncles a kid ever had. My brothers are so great with my kids.This is Russ. He saved the day today. We went for a hike up a trail that was a little rockier and a little steeper then Smarty could handle. Russ pretty much carried Smarty the whole way on his shoulders. I carried Sweety in a front pack.

We slowly climbed for about 2 or 3 miles and then my kids couldn't take any more. We were only several hundred yards from our destination so I decided to wait with my kids while my mother and Russ finished hiking to the waterfall.

My kids were exhausted and after some light snacking and some water, they were showing signs of fatigue. Who could blame them, we'd already been on the mountain for a few hours. I decided to start heading back, but after one or two steep decents, climbing over boulders and forging the river it was clear I wasn't going to be able to get all three of us down by myself. (Dang, I knew I should've had Weaties this morning!) So we found a nice clearing and sat down to rest.

The kids crashed. That is they fell asleep, promptly. I sat there with my beautiful babies in my arms and waited, and admired all of the green plants and flowers and waited, and set a few stray hikers back on course and waited, and waited, and began to count the number of different butterfly species I could see and waited, and thought about the muscles required to imitate some interesting bird calls and waited some more.

After a year or so, Russ appeared. Where was Mom you ask? My dear mother had sprained her ankle and was hobbling down the steep, rocky path with an ingenious crutch Russ had cut from a tree branch. At that same moment a perticular aroma in the air informed me that it had been a mistake to leave the diapers in the car. Crap. And after so much time on the mountain I knew my kids were going to need real food in a hurry.

Here's where the hero of the story emerges. Russ splinted Mom's ankle and made her comfortable by the side of the river so she could keep her foot submerged and cold. Then he threw Smarty on his shoulders and we hauled down the mountain to the car. When it got tough to climb down he reached for my hand and supported Sweety and I too. After we were all clean and on our way to town for some food he hiked back in and practically carried Mom out too! What a man.

Here's uncle Joe with Sweety. Here's uncle Dave. No he's not psycho even though the mustache makes him look questionable! (jab, jab to you Dave) Tomorrow I promise to scan a pic of him that will do him justice.

I don't have any specific hero stories about Dave and Joe at the moment, but they are amazing too. They play on a soccer team and Smarty loves to watch their games. Afterward they always take a minute to kick a ball around with Smarty. He feels so grown-up and important to play ball with these guys.

Smarty just lives for attention from his uncles and they are great at dishing it out. They're pretty heroic to me!