"A Snake Deserves No Pity" ~Yiddish Proverb

We recently had a lesson in Young Womens about record keeping and fun stories that we should write down and since this blog is more or less my journal I thought I should record this silly and funny story.

The other day my mom suggested that we go on a hike to Sheep Falls, there are two sheep falls one that is up by way of Green Timber road and the other is up on the Ashton Hill. So I had never been to the one on Ashton Hill so we decided to make it an adventure and take the two girls along with us. It wasn't to be a very long hike and we didn't leave until about 3:30 pm. We packed some water bottles and drove to the trail head. The hike started off fine other than the girls fighting over who was the leader and I think there were a few tears over picking a yellow flower, but once to the bottom where the falls were the girls were interested in seeing the water up close. Leah starts going for the water's edge when all of a sudden she lets out a shriek and dance around frantically. I hadn't seen what had happened so I asked her, (this is her account after the fact but this is what happened)

"I was running and I stepped on a snake, I screamed and I was so scared! The snake slithered away, but I thought it was going to bite me!" ~Leah

I laughed a little because really... who actually steps ON a snake? The grass was tall and I'm sure neither she nor the snake knew what was going to happen. Anyway it took a little while to get her calmed down to enjoy the water falls but any little brush on her leg or arm was for sure another snake and resulted in a little yelp. I assured her that we would not see another snake and to calm down and relax and enjoy the falls. After enjoying the beautiful waterfall we decided to go back up the hill to the car. I took up the rear with Leah in front of me, Grandma in front of her and Lily in the lead. The trail was heavily shaded by lots of trees and somewhat hindered my sight of Lily but as we were going up the trail a little while, still somewhat close to the river, I hear Lily start screaming like a banshee and see her arms flailing and her little/large blonde pigtailed head running as fast as her legs could take her up the hill, and she wasn't stopping!! I wondered what in the world?!?!? And then yelled, "Mom get her! She's not stopping!!!" She really wasn't going to stop and my mom had to sprint after her, once she did and I soon showed up with Leah we realize that another snake had been spotted but this time it had slithered right over her feet trying to cross the trail and she just took off!

"It was BIG, It was coming and bite me and eat me all gone and that was my story. The snake wanted to say, get out of my way! That's what happened.  And I said AHHHHHH, MOommmy I'm scared!!!" ~Lily

She didn't recover as quickly as Leah had, she instead insisted that Grandma carry her the majority of the way up the hill and when Grandma tried to put her down she clung to her like a monkey and would not be put down. Eventually I talked her into coming to walk by me and hold my finger. That wasn't until the very last part of the hike so she was pretty traumatized and even the mention of a hike now brings the response from both girls, "I don't like hikes."