traveloehrs

Lennox let out a blood curdling yell. I was in the middle of trying to pack the car but dropped my board in a panic and ran towards him. The sharp pain in my ribs was suppressed by the fear of what was hurting my little guy. Tears were streaming down Lennox’s face, and I kneeled down to scoop him up. He looked up at me with the most pathetic face I have ever seen. “Dada, the froggy ate hims!!!” I gave Lennox a hug while a huge wave of relief washed over me along with a laugh that I did my best to hide from my little buddy…

We were packing up to leave Pavones so I could get a check up and X-Ray on my ribs. Lianne was doing most of the heavy lifting as I was in a world of hurt. One thing I could do was pick up my board bag which was outside and when I did that a monster toad hopped out and almost gave me a heart attack. There also happen to be an enormous beetle that flipped out of the bag. Bubba was fascinated by both creatures, and repeatedly told me how cool the beetle was and that he didn’t want the beetle to get hurt.

I provided the typical parental affirmation. “Wow, Buddy…yeah so cool…sweet dude…. blah, blah, blah.” I was focused on loading the car and helping Lianne as much as I could (even though it was a tiny amount). A few minutes into this charade is when I heard poor Lennox bawling. His sweet face was forlorn, and he was tripping over his words as he explained to me how horrible it was to watch the toad gobble up his little beetle buddy.

 We agreed to walk back up to pay our respects to the beetle and look at the villain toad. As we sat there watching, miraculously the toad spit out the beetle right in front of us. The beetle started walking as if nothing had even happened. The toad hopped off. Lennox gasped and looked back at me. He couldn’t contain himself and started jumping up and down for joy. “Dada, the beetle! Hims is back and hims is fine!!” I have never in my life felt such a sense of excitement to see a bug’s life continue…and I doubt I ever will reach that high again.