Worn Out

I had to work this weekend. I work late late shifts and get off from work at 8:00am. On Friday mornings I usually take Triton golfing no matter if I have to get off from work that morning or not. Sheri is at work, so taking Triton one day a week isn't that bad. He just rides in the golf cart and is usually a good boy. He has been acting up the past couple of weeks, but nothing too bad. This last Friday we took him and he was alright once again. I went to work late Friday night and decided to see if Sheri wanted me to take him Saturday as well. She never gets anytime without the little monster on the weekends. I thought it would be nice for her to get away from him.
So, Triton had a two days in a row of golfing. He acted up yet again, and had my stress level up past normal, but he still wasn't too terrible. He just wanted to walk with uncle Billy and help him push his Speedcart. He wanted to hit his putter on the green and leave indentations! He wanted to hit his own ball each time Henry or I hit one of our shots. So, he was a little bit more of a horror, but only because he wanted to be doing what everyone else was doing. We finished up, and I took him to get some Burger King before we each laid down to go to sleep. He for his nap and me for the day.
Sheri wasn't home when we returned which was good, I hope that she was able to have a good Triton free day. Each day when Triton takes a nap, he awakes some two hours later and is ready to go. Whether you have to wake him up, or if he wakes up on his own. Well, I guess Sheri said that she heard him cough and assumed he had awoken. She goes up stairs to get him from his crib. He still sleeps in his crib just fine. He can and has probably been able to climb out for at least 7 months now, but hasn't discovered that ability yet. I guess he acted as if he didn't want to get up, but she removed him and brought him downstairs. He wanted his blanket, which he sometimes does no matter what, before going downstairs. Sheri left it up in his crib and took him downstairs. I guess she sat him on the couch with her and he was still out of it a bit. She let him have some of the blanket that is on our couch. It is the craziest thing, ever since he was maybe 9 months old he likes to grab the corner of the blanket and rub the very corner against his eyes? For the past few months he just rubs it against his face anywhere, but when laying him down back in the day, he had to rub his eyes with the very corner of the blacket to help him fall asleep. Sheri tried giving him the corner of the blanket on the couch, and he didn't really care. She asked if he wanted to play MarioKart on the Wii, and he wouldn't have that either. I guess she said that he finally laid down and just fell back to sleep for like another half hour before the phone woke him up. She tried the Wii again and he was ready, just needed that extra half hour of rest. His limit must be one, because two days of straight golfing for the first time sure did take it out of him.

Nerding it up, King Style

Well, once again I am being a nerd and reading a book. I seem to not have a desire to blog when I am reading? Not sure why, but I guess it saves those who do read my blog a whopping 15 minutes of agony! So, this might be a short blog who knows. Sometimes I can go on and on?
I am reading Stephen King's Desperation. I had started reading it a few times back in the day, but never finished. It has been in my car for years. The book has so much sun rot that the binding is falling apart. It is a hard back novel that I bought for my mom for some reason (birthday/mother's day)? So, yeah mom sorry about your book. It isn't too bad thus far, I am over 400 pages in and it still has my interest. Not like The Stand have you, but good nonetheless. I can see how this book can come to an end with the 200 or so more pages that I have left to read. Not like The Stand, where it could still be going and I would still be happy reading it.
This last weekend we went to an amusement park. Sheri's mom's side of the family were all going. Her step-brother, his wife and kids weren't able to go, but everyone else was able to make the trip. Well, Jake (Sheri's half brother) wasn't able to go, but his wife and their two young boys were able to go. Mason and Rocco are their names. Mason is close to 5 or might be 5? Rocco is about a week older than Triton. So, Saturday we made a trip to an amusement park that is almost 3 hours from home. We woke Triton at about 7:00am, drove to Sheri's mom's and then made the drive to this amusement park. Triton didn't nap on the way down, but was a pretty good boy, only fussed a couple of times. We entered the park at around maybe 11:00am, ate a burger and begun our day. It was very warm, so we took Triton on a few rides and decided to go to the water park that is also in the amusement park area. We had to wait in line for that for about 20 minutes or so because it was at full-capacity. Everyone had separated shortly after taking Triton on his first two rides of the day, because Mason was able to go on a lot more rides than Triton, thus we didn't want to just have Triton watch. We found out that the other two boys along with Sheri's mom and Cory (Jake's wife) were already inside the water park. We waited and finally entered the water area. We walked straight to the kiddie pool area after changing so Triton could cool off.
We walked over this bridge and I notice some children sliding down these two small water slides. We hadn't even dipped a toe in the water. I see this little boy not too much bigger than Triton slide down and he is kind of stuck at the bottom of the slide with his head under the water. I was thinking to myself, somebody grab that kid! There was a taller little girl that had slid down on the slide next to his and was just standing there? She looked over and helped him up. Thank goodness right? The boy was fine, and I get a better look and notice that it was Rocco! Rocco was the little boy who could have easily been stuck in the water a few more seconds and something bad could have happened? I tell Sheri that Rocco is there by himself, and we go over to him and wait. I guess he had eluded his mom and in a split second raced up the stairs to this little slide. Cory was just around this corner and informed us the little booger had ran from her and was gone just like that. I told her what had just happened. I imagine that she must have been way scared. I guess I am glad that she didn't see how he was stuck under the water, it probably saved her some tears. Rocco didn't even act like anything had happened, he was happy to be in the pool.
The water was way cold. Sure it was a way hot day, but this water park has nothing over 4 feet deep, so you can't just jump in. You kind of have to ease your way in. I did get in a few times, and even after being submerged under completely I was only able to tolerate the cold for only maybe ten minutes at a time. It was that cold! I would wade around with Triton and he would just shiver and shiver. We mostly stayed in the kiddie side of the pool, so he didn't freeze for too long. I ended up getting a sunburn on my shoulders, but not too bad. I was able to golf the next day, so it really wasn't that bad. We made sure that Triton had plenty of sun block, so he was fine. I for sure don't want Triton to get a sunburn this early in his life.
Triton was only able to ride on like 5 rides, but on of them (I took him on) was the Jumping Dragon. It is a simple ride that is like the Music Express at the fair? Riders just sit and go around in circles. It has a very small incline, so it goes up and down a bit, but that is it. It just goes around in circles, but is pretty dang fast. This ride also stops in the middle of the allotted time and reverses. I wasn't sure how Triton would handle it, because it was his second ride of the day. The first one he went on with Sheri and it went around and up and down, while water squirted the riders. He wanted to sit on Sheri's lap, but that wasn't allowed, so he had to sit by himself in the seat just next to her. He was crying because of that in the beginning. but by the end of the ride he was fine, and had fun getting wet. We was much better sitting by himself on the Jumping Dragon, but I knew that he didn't have a clue what he was in for, because this ride went way fast. He started out a little weary, but after we started going fast he was laughing. It kept going fast and maybe a little more faster, and he stopped laughing. It reversed and he was fine, no more laughing have you, but he was not crying. He didn't even act scared, just a little worried when it was going fast for so long. So, I was mega-proud of him and his first big ride.
Cory ended up taking the two boys to the hotel for a nap, but Triton never napped. Darrell (Sheri's mom's husband) was amazed at how Triton was able to stay awake for so long without a nap. Cory and the kids came back to the park at around 7:30 pm. Darrell was with them and they brought pizza, it was so good. Thanks again for the pizza Darrell and Laura. Laura is Sheri's mom. So we ate, while the boys ran around in circles around us. I told Cory that her two boys were being bad influences on Triton, because we usually have Triton right with us all of the time. She said she knew that they were bad influences, but I wasn't serious though. I was glad that Triton was able to run around with his cousins. Mason and Rocco are for sure little rascals though. Triton is an angel compared to them. They run around and scream all of the time. Triton maybe acts that way a tenth of the time that they do. There is nothing wrong with any of them though, but I admire Cory for not having pulled all of her hair out though.
A friend of ours, who had just returned from his mission a little over a year ago and married shortly thereafter is expecting his first child in April? Anyway, we were at their family's place a few weeks ago having dinner and he was telling his mom that he hopes to have a kid just like Triton! It was pretty funny and a nice compliment to the way Triton acts. This young man's
(Trevor) sister has two young ones as well that aren't anything compared to Mason and Rocco, but he gets strung out on how his little niece, who is 4, acts. So, he is in for a big surprise if his little boy or girl is half as rambunctious as Mason and Rocco. So, good luck Trevor, I love you but there is only one Triton!

$40 Remains

I didn't end up golfing in that tournament this past weekend. Friday I double dipped for the first time this year. Double dipped as in golfed twice in one day, thus a 36 hole day. 36 holes is nothing, but two holes from the end, I was taking a couple of practice swings and pulled something in my back. I withdrew from the tournament the next day and was regretting it all day Saturday, because I woke up and felt fine. I then went golfing on Sunday and realized it was a good thing that I didn't golf the tournament. My back was mega stiff, I couldn't make a full turn. It didn't hurt, but was just limiting in movement. It is still a bit stiff, but nothing to worry about. I didn't shoot half bad, but I am sure that it wouldn't have let me score low enough to cash in the tournament. So, as it is the $40 is still in my pocket. At least I didn't lose out on that money?
Here at a few picks of Triton this weekend at the park.




He is making a funny face in the last one, that is why it is bigger!

Finally Some More Pics

This is the three of us at the Hoover Dam. I had never seen it and it wasn't anything that special at all! I understand that it has it's stamp on American history and a lot of work, sweat and even lives were taken in the making of the dam, but it was what you expect I guess. If you had to picture it in your mind from the movies you would be spot on. The State line wasn't on the road like in some movies though? In the picture we are on the dam itself facing the lake. Behind us is something that is in the process of being built, in the upper right hand side of the picture you can kind of see it. There is going to be a new bridge that is going to allow drivers to keep up speed I guess. I really don't see the whole point of adding a huge bridge where one already basically exists? Other than the fact that there are a ton of tourists there that drive exhaustingly slow and the speed limit is way slow on the dam anyway. It is going to be a marvelous work just as the dam itself, and of course next time we are down there, we will probably want to see the finished product as well. I guess I might be a little sour at the fact that it was so hot? I mean we were only there for like 20 minutes or so, and Triton was being an ornery little monkey. He didn't want to be in the stroller, he wanted to push the stroller himself. This would be fine if he knew how to avoid hitting people that we didn't know, and the fact that the road is right off the sidewalk.

At the bowling alley itself is where we found the place that suited Triton during his little outbursts! In the next pics you can see how it was a dream finding not only a place to store bowling balls, but also to place our little devil when we needed some peace and quiet!

I knew that it was going to be hot in Vegas, and it was. It was tolerable for me, I am a person who likes warmth. However the heat was intensified on the dam itself. While in Vegas, even at night the temperature never dropped below 95 degrees. As well, there are a million cockroaches in Vegas. The do only seem to come out at night, but when they come out they are like gangs. I was walking from our hotel/condo at the Residence Inn to get Sheri and I some bottled water, and I noticed them. We had seen a few dead roaches and had only seen our first live one at Circus Circus just earlier that same night, but this was extreme. I was walking on the path between the condos and I could see something on the ground, there was like 5 to 8 here and there in little groups. It was as if I was watching Boyz n The Hood, only instead of human gang bangers, they were roaches. I say this simply because they weren't afraid of anything. They don't run like in the movies? They stand their ground, smoking cigarettes and make crude gestures as you walk by? I guess it was a new experience for me, glad to know that we live in a somewhat cleaner city!

How Far Can $5 Go?

At my father's house every year on the last Saturday of July is a party/horseshoe tournament. This was the first year that I decided to go. I am not good at horseshoes, but I like to play. My dad holds two double elimination tournaments during the day. One tournament for the early birds who want to start getting wasted at 2:00, and another that is supposed to start at 5:00. The tournament is a doubles event where you draw for a partner! Thus everyone wants to be partnered up with my dad. He is the best at this given party, but not that great of a horseshoe player on a scale of 1 - 10. If there is a person who can't even make the pit being a 1 and a 10 being someone who ringers every throw being a ten, my dad is probably a 5. Me, maybe I might make a rating of a 4? At this tournament however there is my dad being rated a ten, because mostly everyone else sucks and then myself probably about an 8 or a 9? There was one more player that ranked with me at an 8 or 9 at the party, but I figured he wouldn't be able to last while drinking so much liquor.
I showed up for the first tournament at 2:00, and there was maybe 7 teams. I drew a gentleman that I had never met, but knew his wife since I was probably 5. She was a girl who lived next door to my grandma, who was a few years older than me. Anyway, her husband was a wicked nice guy, and he didn't throw horseshoes all that bad. On the pro scale he might make a 3 or a 4? At this party, maybe a 7 at the most. I thought he was going to do better than he did, but I wasn't too upset with the draw. I score the majority of our points, but he helped in times of need. We ended up losing our first match! It was a double elimination tournament format, so we still had a chance. We won our next few matches, while my dad's team was the only undefeated team left. We then had another match with the same team that beat us earlier in the day. We killed them and it was down to the final two teams. Cary and myself and my dad and his partner. We had to beat my father's team two games in order to win. I wasn't thinking that we would be able to win, but I threw a ringer to cancel out my dad's ringer in the first match. We ended up winning the first match. Then my dad wants to switch the side that he is throwing from (avoiding me in the process) and Cary said he wanted to stay on the same side that he had been on all day. This leaves him trying to score over my dad! This match didn't go well at all! The game was over before it began. I called my dad a chicken for not wanting to play against me, but it was all in vain because he and his partner won the money. The tournament is only $5 to play, the blind draw thing is pretty messed up, but gives those who can't play a chance to get partnered up with my dad and then they might win the money. It is a winner take all event.
Tournament number 2 starts at about 6, there are 10 teams giving $50 to each player on the winning team. There are women who can't even throw from pit to pit playing, drunken guys who can barely stand playing and then a select few who can score are drinking more and more as the night wears on! A double elimination tournament with so many drunks was going to take all night! My partner and I win our first two matches and we didn't play another game after that until after dark because of the losers bracket being eliminated. My dad and his partner ended up losing a match somewhere in the midst of all the drunken madness! I was becoming optimistic with the news of my father only needing one more loss to be out. Not that I figured that my partner and I would win, because we had only played to poor teams. However, if my dad's team was to lose then that gets rid of the best player at the party. Cary and I drew each other again in the second tournament as well. I of course wanted to draw my dad, but wasn't too upset about drawing Cary again because he had already agreed to be on the opposite side as my father in the game. Thus, he wouldn't have to try to beat my dad, I would be the one to take on that task. The tournament was taking much too long like I said, and it was already dark. We were throwing horseshoes from pit to pit by the light of two spot lights. This is fine, but you have no idea how you threw the horseshoe until it hits either the pit, or something else down on that end of the yard! The time had come for Cary and I to play in our third match, yeah! Sheri had taken Triton home way before this so that he would be able to go to sleep, so I was babysitting a bunch of drunks and trying to play a tournament at the same time. I was so tired from already golfing earlier that day and the previous tournament, but I wanted to stick around to win $50.00.
Third match was between the two undefeated teams. On the other team was Dena's (my step mom) brother Joe and his partner. Joe is one of the funniest guys you will ever meet in your life. He was one of the first people who wasn't related to me that liked me for who I was. He lives in Boise and I had never met him until I was about 16 years old. He attended a dinner with my dad, Dena and her parents at my place of employment. I worked as a busboy at a local restaurant and that was when I had first met Joe. I didn't think anything of him at the time, but after meeting him once or twice I remember Dena saying that Joe really liked me? This was, again like I said, a new experience for me. Never had an adult other than family and co-workers liked me after meeting me. Sure people liked me, but never had someone said they thought that I was so funny and liked me after one or two meetings. It might have been because I am a shy person, or maybe I might be an acquired taste, who knows? After Dena informed me that Joe liked me and thought I was funny I payed more attention to him when he visited. He was married and had a child of his own who was maybe 3 or 4 years old at the time. I have invaded his home when staying in Boise many times, and when he is in town I try to visit him. He is one of the nicest, funniest and selfless people you will ever know. He is for sure an acquired taste of his own, because he doesn't care who is around, he will speak his mind! Especially when he is drunk! Like this Saturday, he supposedly never knew that I was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. Mormon as he was calling me. "No, I won't have any mormons taking my money," he says as we begin our third match of the night. Joe is now divorced, but has custody of his child who is now 16 years old himself.
Our match began, and Joe's partner was about an equal to Cary, and I was a bit better than Joe, so we should have won. In fact that is what we did! The match was just as easy as our first two matches and that left us still unbeaten. A few more matches went by eliminating every team except for my dad's and Joe's. The winner of this match was going to have to face Cary and myself for the money. It was nice to be in the title match and having a chance to win the money without losing and without even being close to losing.
Joe and his partner was the obvious team that I was rooting for, because I didn't want to have to face my dad again. My dad was so drunk, but that really doesn't affect his throwing ability. My wish was granted, because Joe and his partner pulled out into an early lead. We were only going to 11, and Joe's team was up like 9 - 3. The games have to be won by two points, and I thought the money was gone when my dad pulled his team into a tie game of 10 - 10. My dad was starting to focus more and more and I could see in his eyes that he wanted to win. Joe pulled an amazing win in the very end, and I was mega relieved. My partner Cary, unknown to me, had already written Cary and Jason Win on the board. I would have erased that had I known about it, because I don't like to celebrate until the game is over. He hadn't just written this message either! He had written this a few hours earlier. Well, he was trying to celebrate with me before our first match for the title as well. I told him to stay focused (however focused drunk people can) and not to celebrate too early. We had to play Joe's team again, a team that we had stomped some hour ago into the ground. The title match wasn't as easy, and for some reason I knew it wasn't going to be.
Joe's partner threw a ringer his very first throw giving them a 3 - 0 lead. We ended up getting one somewhere? Then they scored two more, giving them a 5 - 1 lead. We come back with a flurry and the score is 9 - 5 us and I could taste victory. Of course Joe's partner throws another ringer and the score is 9 to 8. Joe is first to throw now, and he throws one that is leaning. At my dad's house a leaner is only 1 point, but nonetheless it is a point and the score is going to be 9 - 9 unless I can get him off of the peg! I throw the first it landed close but Joe still has the point. I throw the next and it knocks his shoe off the peg. All I am hoping for now is that it knocked it off and I am closer giving us a 10 - 8 lead!? Cary and this other gentleman (Joe's partner) are assessing the score and Cary says we won? I guess my second shoe knocked Joe's completely out of the scoring range and both of my shoes were close enough to score, giving us an 11- 8 winning score. It was a fun game, but I would rather win by a landslide then only a minuscule amount. I grabbed my $50 and went home. Got home just before 2:00am!
From this $5, I made $50. From this $50, I have used $40 of it to enter a golf tournament. I think the winner usually gets a little over $200.00 club house credit. So, again I ask "How far can $5 go?"
From the title of the blog, you might be wondering why I said $5 instead of $10.00 since I had to pay $5 twice to play in both tournaments right? Well, just after the first tournament was over, my step-sister Stacy challenged me to a match for $5. I told her no, that we could just play for fun because I didn't want to take her money. Well, she kept going on and on, so I accepted her (already drunk at the time) challenge and beat her. Taking her $5 was easy, but her own fault! I thought that she might have been practicing a bunch and I was getting taken, but I played anyway. She did have a 1- 0 lead on me, but that was it, I threw a couple of ringers and the game was over.

Triton and the Mountains

A few weeks ago, we decided to take Triton huckleberry picking. I didn't think that the berries were ready to be picked, but we decided to at least take a little drive anyway. The berries were in fact not ready to be picked. They were little nubs of green, unlike the plump purple color they need to be. At first we wanted to find a babysitter for Triton, but then I figured why not? Let's take him and see how he does.
This last Monday night we decided to press our luck again. Sheri returned home from work and we started on our way about 4:00. A friend of a friend had supposedly been up there a couple of days before and picked some and said they were ready.
We arrived at our normal spot to find another car parked there. Which really wasn't that big of a deal, there is a whole mountain, so sharing with others isn't that big of a deal. We heard the other people, but they weren't in the area that I like to go to so I was happy. We spayed ourselves down with bug spray and headed up the mountain. I didn't realize that Sheri was allowing Triton to walk, but he was trucking right up the hill. I wasn't in a hurry to get to my normal area, because I wanted to see if there were berries ready to be picked at all. So, I was looking at the bushes here and there, and that was when I noticed how amazing Triton was moving. He didn't care about the terrain, he didn't care that most bushes were bigger than he was, he was just going. His first time in the rugged outdoors suited him just fine. On the lower part of the hill/mountain there are trails and he was basically leading the way! As soon as I realized that the berries were indeed ready for harvest, I realized that the speed we were traveling at was way too slow. I headed in the direction that I usually like and Sheri and Triton followed. I figured Triton would be okay with his mom because I am the kind of person who likes to move around a lot when picking huckleberries. It is kind of like fishing as a kid. If I didn't catch a fish in my first cast or two I was ready to move to a different spot. Huckleberry picking is the same way for me. I like to find the bigger better berries and they must be in a bush that isn't the one that I am currently looking in. The berries were ready to be picked like I said, however there weren't a bunch like I had hoped. We picked for like an hour. Triton wanted to be with me? He loves his mom, for sure the biggest momma's boy there is, but today he wanted me. I didn't mind that much, but moving from place to place with a two year old in the thick bush is not that fun. Sheri can stay in one little area and be happy picking berries from one spot. So, I tried to leave Triton with her once, that didn't go that well when Triton spotted me up the hill away from them. He did manage to get up to me by himself though. I dropped him off with her again after a few minutes and headed where they couldn't see me. Then I found the biggest bunch of huckleberries ever. There was a load of bushes together and there were loads of berries on them. I told Sheri to get up to this area, so I raced back down to where they were, that way I could carry Triton. We stayed there the rest of the time that we were there and probably picked some 32 ounces a piece. I didn't really like the berries we were picking because they weren't as big as I like, but there was a bunch and we were able to stay together.
Triton actually helped pick berries, at first he squished a few but that was only a couple. After that, he picked them just fine. I let him eat a few and he loved them. We let him wander just a bit here and there, but not too far from arm's length. He found a patch of loose dirt up where I was and he was done picking berries. He wanted to play in the dirt and was disappointed when I had to move down the mountain a bit. He helped pick again. A storm started brewing and Triton was doing the weirdest thing. The wind whipped through the trees above. He looked up and upon seeing and hearing what the wind was doing to the trees he kind of howled like a wolf? I thought it was cute and wondered why he was doing such a thing? My boy part werewolf? The wind calmed for a few minutes and again, it returned with the same furry as before and he again looked up and around, then started this little howl again? Cute as could be. I could tell it was going to rain, so I told Sheri that we were ready to go. Down by the car is this patch of loose dirt that is probably an inch in a half to two inches deep. We were loading up and Triton was running through this loose dirt, just loving it. Proving that he is a boy, he fell down and a cloud of dirt filled the air. He picked himself up with a smile and started running through the dirt again. He threw a fit when he realized we were leaving. Was he upset we were leaving to go home? Or, was he upset that we were leaving his werewolf brothers?

I had told my grandmother on my mom's side that I would show her where we pick huckleberries. So, I felt a bit guilty about not inviting her that night. So, I called her the next day and asked if she wanted to go up. She said that the next day would be fine. We headed out of town with Grandma, Frank (her husband), Jared (my cousin), Triton and I. This time we headed out about 10:30am and it was a Wednesday. With it being so early and it being a weekday I didn't think that we would run into anyone up there. We arrived at the area where we normally park and there were two cars there. Only enough space for maybe one more car, but Frank was following in a separate vehicle so I was going to turn around and park there and have him park on the other side of the road. We drove a bit more and discovered another 2 vehicles parked. We had to drive a ways to find a spot to turn around, but we finally managed and one our way we went. We never saw or heard anyone else up there this time, despite the numerous vehicles parked. I don't know where they were picking berries but we saw 4 guys when we left and it didn't look like they had found a very good spot to pick from because they didn't have that many berries?
My grandma didn't know what type of bushes the huckleberries grew on so I had to show her. The rain in the mountains that first night we were there must have done something good for the berries because there was a bunch down on the lower area that weren't there two days previous. I was able to show grandma what the berries looked like and which ones to pick. I was happy that there were berries so close to the road so that my old crazy grandma didn't have to walk so far up the mountain side. Jared, Triton and I headed to the same spot that I had found before and started picking. There were indeed plenty of berries, but in this same area the berries were not the size that I like, there were about half the size that I wanted. Of course they all taste the same, but the bigger ones take up more space and it is easier to fill up cups/buckets faster with bigger berries. I told Jared I was moving from that area and left him there. I headed toward the area that I like most of all, the same spot where I had looked the night before (maybe a little farther down), and found the size of berries that I liked. They weren't as plentiful as the area with the small berries but I didn't care. I picked here and there, and was pleased with the move. This day I brought little to go coffee cups, instead of a big bucket. I knew with Sheri not there that I might have to feed, change or entertain Triton all by myself. I had packed a few things and put them in the backpack. I knew that I would be able to pick enough berries to fill a cup and simply put a lid on it, put it in the backpack and so on and so on. This time I had given Triton his own cup. He loved that idea. He picked berries just as good as the next guy, but with the bushes being so big and tasting so good he would either trip and fall and spill them, or simply eat them. I was fine with letting him do what he wanted, but once we moved to the area with the bigger berries I wasn't so thrilled with him spilling the nice big huckleberries. I would ask to see how much he had, and if he had more than ten berries in his cup I would dump them into mine. I thought it might upset him, but it didn't at all. Instead he decided that once he picked one berry he would put it in his cup and then dump his one berry from his cup into my cup. This got old real fast because he was just slowing me down. I was still amazed at how he didn't squish a single berry! We kept migrating to the right away from the small berry patch. Jared had joined us by then. I knew it was probably time for Triton to eat, but I didn't want to stop and take him down to the car to eat his snacks. He didn't like sitting on the ground at all! He only wanted to sit down if it was on my lap. Thus, I knew that I would have to take him to the car soon so eat his snacks. It was then that I found the craziest place ever! There was this bush that was maybe 4 feet by 4 feet and it had the most huckleberries I had ever seen on one bush. This little bush probably had 800 to 1,200 berries on it. These weren't the small berries either! In the first area with the small berries you might be lucky to get 100 berries in that amount of space. What was the best part of this bush was the fact that there was this nice stump right next to it that Triton was able to sit and eat his snacks. He ate and ate, while I picked and picked. I filled 4 of those to go coffee cups and was ready to leave. I could have stayed, but I didn't have anymore cups. I returned home with Triton after dropping Jared off at grandma's to discover that it was 2:30! I didn't think it was that late already, but it wasn't that big of a deal. Triton hadn't missed nap time yet, so I fed him and laid him down.
Triton was so good that it just amazed me. Let's just see if he likes the same berries that he kept shoveling into his mouth the same if they are in a pie?