Typical Saturday in Mirthville

Mister C has been traveling quite a bit lately. And by quite a bit, I mean, he leaves Monday morning before 5:00 am and returns home Friday night around 8:00. Kind of cuts in on family time. So on Saturdays, we've made it a point to try and do something as a family. And the past four Saturdays, that something has been going for a hike on one of the local mountains. Today's hike was one of the easier ones in that there was only about 45 minutes worth of going (mostly) uphill before we got to the top and could start heading (mostly) downhill. I ended up running towards the end because I actually had some energy left. Then, on one of the switchbacks, I looked up to see Master J running down the mountain. I did a double take because the last I had heard before I took off running, was Master J starting in with some whining about being tired. And here he was, running. Talk about competitive! Mister C was further back with ADHD Girl coming down at a reasonable rate. Now, I could have slowed down and let Master J catch up with me. I could have, but I didn't. Because I knew that if I kept running, he would too. And he would do everything in his power to beat me. He's just that competitive. So I ran. And as I got to the last switchback, I checked where he was and he was catching up. The final downhill is straight so I couldn't see him, but as I got further down it, I could hear his footsteps pounding the trail behind me. I didn't look back. I could hear him getting progressively closer so I sped up. And he did as well. I did get to the bottom first. But not by much. Maybe 10 seconds or so. Then, we stood around and talked smack for five minutes while waiting for Mister C to finally get down the mountain. Ahh, family bonding!