How to scare your mother

We had a lovely Christmas which if I get my act together I may blog about. But for now I'm going back to the one or two photos a day--much more my speed. This photo was taken New Year's Day. We went to Joshua Tree which is little boy heaven because there are so many rocks to climb. We met up with Bill's sister and at the outset I told her we needed to keep an eye on Will because he seemed to think he could climb everything John could. Her 3-year-old son had the same problem. He thought he could do everything Will could. She proved to be a better parent because she kept Alex from getting hurt. In the meantime just as I predicted Will fell and scraped both of his knees. Yes, he was wearing shorts even though it was barely 40 degrees. (Read on, the bad parenting continues.) Both Bill and I ran to comfort Will. In the meantime a man called out. "Hey you'd better spot your son." We turned around to see this.


Actually this photo was taken a minute later. In that time, Bill had run from where I took the photo back to the rock. Bill's the figure in the dark brown jacket. But he wasn't fast enough. Moments after I snapped this photo on my phone, John slipped. The man who had warned us, the middle figure in the tan jacket was closest and caught John preventing his head from hitting the rocks. Bill brought back a very distraught 6-year-old boy but other than being scared, John was unharmed. The man and his daughter continued on their hike and we drove off to another part of the park. We were all so distressed that I didn't think to go thank the man who caught my son. Now, I wish I had. John is a heavy boy, he could have injured this good Samaritan. So I really regret, not thanking this man. But I thank God for protecting my crazy boy--even when his parents don't.