Hiking.

Turner and I went on a hike today.

It was 97 degrees here, so we sweated a lot. Turner was a super trooper, and everyone that met him on the trail had to gush over him and how "tough" he was. Seriously, I heard between ten and twelve tough guy remarks, as in "What a tough guy," "geez look at that tough guy," or "thank goodness you got such a tough little guy with you." I guess there were a half dozen statements of shock "Oh my goodness. How old is he?" So, Turner had admirers.

We hiked, stopped about five times for water,and then 35 minutes in we had lunch in a tiny piece of shade that a leaning cactus offered us (yeah, it wasn't much). We lunched for awhile. I look at the time and mistakenly think we

have only been hiking for twenty minutes. I ask if his legs are too tired to go on. He jumps to his feet and shouts, "No! I am too tough for that."

So we hiked on for another 15 minutes or so to the wash where I knew there was shade and maybe (hope beyond hope) some water. There was not any water, but Turner surfed for awhile.

Turner, after having learned the word agile, decided he would prove over and over that he could balance rock to rock. At one point he put his foot to a small rock that was not securely fastened to the earth and he caught

the next rock with his knee. It looked scary and he admonished me for not having taken a picture as the accident happened.

The Injury. I think it was "five scrapes and two bloody spots."

This was an excited moment during lunch. Turner said, That looks like Santa's sleigh. In the clouds.

There was quite a bit of rugged terrain (a new phrase for Turner. Other words he learned and tried over and over in his conversation was entrance, agile, agility, maneuverability).