Chapter 4

Dad woke us up like they do in the army. He blew an invisible trumpet:

“Doo, doo, DOODOOdoo, doo DOO DOODOOdoo,

Doo, DOO, DOODOOdoo, doo, DOOOO, doo.”

He was already dressed. He stretched his arms high. “Uuuuuup!” and then he swung down and touched his toes. “Dooowwwwnn!” Mom joined in while me and Jack and Jenna got some Cheerios. I ate slowly, watching the little circles, all lazy in the milk. They were on vacation, happy as can be. No hiking for them today.

I don’t really like hiking all that much. The thing is, Dad forgets that his legs are twice as long as mine. To keep up, I have to move them twice as fast as he moves his. He’ll go STEP STEP and I’ll have to go stepstepstepstep. So my legs ache like mad.

“OH-kay, let’s saddle the horses! Yep!” Dad sure was peppy.

That was just an expression about the horses. I wished we actually had some. We could ride up Mount Baldy, let them do the walking.

The Clown Car took us to the foot of Mount Baldy and I could tell he was happy to stay behind as we headed up the steep path.