Shane in a Tree

Still banned from swimming in the pond, Shane entertained himself by climbing a tree.  In this picture he is standing on the lowest branch; anyone who wants to climb the tree must climb a rope tied to the lowest branch first.

He quickly disappeared in the higher branches and my mama heart beat irregularly as I tried not to panic.  I wasn't this much of a wimp when I was younger.  I was quite the monkey myself and clearly remember the recess duty telling me I wasn't allowed to climb so high in the school's trees.  But now that I've had children, watching them put themselves in danger, no matter how insignificant, causes me distress.  All I could imagine was Shane falling from the tree, so I turned my attention to my other children swimming in the pond and worried when they didn't surface for air fast enough after jumping off the rope swing.  When Ian and Evie had a paddle board race, I turned the movie camera on, hoping for a fun movie.  About 15 seconds in you hear Mark say... well, watch it yourself and enjoy...

If the volume wasn't loud enough, you can hear Mark allude to the small branches breaking and falling out of the tree.  Then we hear a louder crack and we both gasp.  Shane hollers, "I'm fine!"  We asked him to come down after that (after I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes-I tell you, I'm getting pathetic!)