Hiking

Today after dinner we went on a little walk on our land. We have some blackberry bushes the boys wanted to check out and Joe wanted to put up his deer camera. So off we went on our "venture" as Luke likes to call them. Eli was on my back in the backpack. He was quite content to hang out back there as long as I would give him a blackberry now and then. The problem is we have had too many pickers and there weren't that many left, so he would get upset with me and go "WAAN". Well Joe found the perfect spot for the deer camera, and he went off the path into the woods. Luke followed him of course and then started to yell for Graham to come too. Well Graham is holding onto my hand and isn't letting go. So I see a spot that looks like not many prickers and we can get into the woods area better, so we duck under some tree branches (which Eli thought was funny) and the we are in the woods. There was a little ditch almost, where the water would come down and it kind of made like a little ravine (I am talking 3-4 ft) but a narrow pathway and then around a sharp bend. Well Luke wanted to climb down and then wanted Graham to go to. So Joe took them and I stayed on top with Eli. Then both Luke and I saw a bridge up ahead at the same time. Someone had taken an old railroad tie and put it across this ditch. So we walk to that area a little bit, and Eli starts getting animated on my back. Swinging his arms and squawking (what he is saying we weren't sure). But we guessed he wanted down. So we got him out, and boom, he takes off right for this "bridge" (only like a 8 in drop off into 100 yr old leaves and sticks). He crawls across it no problem, gets to the other side and goes back. Luke is starting to get brave and jumping off it. Graham, is being cautious, and needs a hand to hold to go across it. Pretty soon Eli is crawling down in to the ditch and just walking all over, and pulling himself up onto the bridge from below. No fear at all. He was more adventurous than Graham. At one point Luke went for a little walk around some trees, and Eli just followed him the whole way. It was of course the one time neither of us had our phones for a picture :( But you may see the spot in our Christmas photo, as it looked like a neat place for a picture.