Sleepy Hollow

Each October finds us trekking through Tarrytown to the Sleepy Hollow cemetery. Graves are nestled on rolling hills that curve down to a river, complete with waterfall and wooden bridge. When we hiked in North Carolina at the Unschooling conference, P loved it. Ditto Colorado. Ditto the woods on my folk's farm. But he was so little last October that we weren't sure how much he'd love it this time around. Well, he loved it a LOT.

Added to the excitement of a day of splashing around fallen leaves were Uncle Seth and Aunt Alicia. They took the train north with us, during which time Phoenix didn't notice his parent's existence. He sat in the row behind us chatting with Aunt Alicia the whole time (gawd bless her:)

We've explored the same areas of the cemetery on our previous visits, so this time we followed the little road further back. We eventually found a lovely little waterfall with the necessary boulders for the water, and small boys, to bounce over. P was determined to cross the river WithOut the wooden bridge. He schemed and planned, searching the banks for jumpable spaces. But the middle was barren of big boulders. Undeterred he pulled me out onto the rocks, pointing out our impossible path. Seth, our saviour, had foreseen the dilemma, gone to the other bank and started rock hopping towards us. We found the closest rocks possible and passed P over. The victory gave him a heady dose of self assurance, propelling him precariously from rock to rock. At first E tried to keep a hand on P, but this proved impossible with him cackling and jumping out of reach. He was deliriously happy hopping over watery spaces, feeling like he was doing something unbelievably dangerous:)







After a final forge (following Papa and Seth's amazing waterfall leap) we wound our way uphill amidst the tombs.

We didn't make it very far. P became engrossed with little seed pods on the ground and, true to his nature, collected a zillion of them. (Have I mentioned his pack rat, coin collector side? Its fairly strong :) We chilled under some short trees that proved perfect for climbing. P has really been into tree climbing for a while now, but most trees in the park are trimmed quite high, ending the adventure before it begins. This was a whole grove of P sized trees and he climbed and climbed and climbed. Then he found a bouncy branch and jiggled it, giddy with his apparent strength. It was a short mental leap to torture, once again. He requested Baby Brother be placed on said branch and then jostled him out over and over with no end in sight to the activity:) But the last time we visited Sleepy Hollow, we didn't mind the closing time and had to climb a fence to get out of the place. So we were sure to leave on time, the memory of being locked in the only thing motivating P to leave his tree....