Manly Camping (warning- this post contains gross photos)

Now that all our imported teens have left the nest, it's time to start raising our own. That's right, my oldest son is now thirteen! To celebrate, he got a tent, a hatchet, and a bunch of other camping gear. And a camping trip with dad.
They took off to some beautiful but rugged land about an hour away known for it's massive waterfalls. And steep slidey trails, and cliffs, and rattlesnakes. They had a ball hiking, swimming and fishing. To get down to the bottom of the falls, they took a trail about 18 inches wide with loose rocks that tilted down off a cliff. See those little ledges? That's the trail. So yeah, they were on this trail with a cliff on one side, and certain death on the other. The memory of it still makes my husband shudder. As he tells me about it, I fluff up like an angry hen. "Do you remember how hard I worked to GET him here?! It's a good thing we PRAYED for your SAFETY while you were gone!!" Well, he's learned his lesson, I can be sure of that. When he got home, he had what looked like a scrape the size of a nickel on his shin. It was curiously black. And his leg itched. By the next day he was itching like mad and blisters were popping up and oozing all over. Yep, it was poison oak. He was a regular ooze factory. Then it got worse. He worked all week on these legs, then on Friday finally gave in and went to urgent care. He got a steroid shot in the rear, antibiotics and some more steroids. They'd never seen anything like his nasty, oozing festering legs. It was like Christmas in July, nurses were knocking on the door for a peek and asking if they could help wrap him up (it helps that he's cute). They kicked themselves for not taking pictures before they got him all bandaged up. He was that much of a curiosity there. He's very slowly recovering now. I think he's learned his lesson.