Happy Thanksgiving

I understand that somewhere in the world, people are gathering with their families and eating turkey and getting ready to go shopping for great deals, at stores which don't pay 54% import tax on everything on their shelves.  I am not really missing the Thanksgiving-ness, probably because I never picked apples and got out my sweaters and watched the mums come out and trimmed back the roses; in my heart it's still gotta be about August 23rd or so.  I haven't had the energy to try and prepare a fake thanksgiving kind of thing, but we let the kids take the day off school, which we are spending at the swimming pool at the Speke Resort.  Once we finally got out the door.

The days keep passing on by.  Tomorrow is our rescheduled court date, so it's good that is getting closer.  The next day Mark leaves, which I am not glad is getting closer.  I wanted somewhere to enjoy his trip more.  How do you enjoy being with a person?  How do you treasure every moment with someone?

We form different relationships with different people, and maybe with some long-distance friends we have a long-distance pattern, or we have something special we always do together, or we know how to sit down and have heart-to-heart chats at every opportunity.  But that's not the relationship I have with my own husband.  Maybe it was ten years ago, when our relationship was fresh and exciting.

Now we're good at being silent together.  We're good at seeing what needs doing and setting ourselves to doing what we each do best.  We're good at sitting down to dinner, and I get things from the kitchen and he keeps the kids engaged.  We're good at talking over the things that come to our mind or bother us during the day or that we are thinking about, when it comes to our minds.  We're good at working on our separate projects, and tossing out a comment now and then, or sharing an irony we notice.  We're good at splitting bedtime up.  We're good at sleeping with our backs together, like a solid support through the darkest night.

But I guess we're not good at "making the most" of a few days' time together.  Which right now is weighing on my heart, but I also feel resentful, like we SHOULDN"T have to be good at it.  We're not meant to spend a few special days together, we have a relationship that's built to go the distance.  I couldn't spend my whole life with someone if we sat down to serious talks every moment, but I can spend my whole life with someone who is good at being silent with me.  I feel like a six-day trip with my husband is like asking a Volvo to run with the Miatas.

(And the car metaphor is in his honor, since I would never even think of car brands if he weren't around!  And I'm going to have to ask him which brand to use, actually.)

But.... I will be thankful on this Thanksgiving.  I am so thankful that we can celebrate this day as a family of five, although it would be a little easier to feel that thanks all the way down to my toes if we had a little more paperwork that meant the girls were safe in our family forever.

We spent the whole afternoon at the pool, and I love watching my children play.  They express the essence of their personalities in those moments.  Hibiscus, who has been on constant overdrive since the move and all the other disruptions, calmed down into the focus of playing and moving in the water.  By the end of the day her wild energy had been burned down to the point where she was sitting with me and her sweetness and loving heart and desire to listen and connect were right there on the surface, instead of buried under these layers of chaos that are so difficult on parents -- and everyone else, including herself.

I got the girls showered, and as we waited in the golden afternoon light, Buttercup calm in the wrap, Hibiscus sitting next to me on a pool chair: she wanted to watch some "beautiful birds," and made up a conversation for the ring-necked doves in a funny little dove-voice.  They were sisters in her mind, which I thought was an image of a central relationship in her mind (if one were bigger, it would be mama and baby, obviously!).  She was leaning on me, and then when I got out the brush she wanted to do my hair, and she waited for me to take the barrettes out and then gently and lovingly brushed my hair.  When we were ready to go, her eyes were quickly on our faces, figuring out what we wanted so she could be the best helper.  She chose to carry a heavy bag, and only released it when she realized she couldn't carry it and hold both parents' hands, which was even more important to her little heart.  Her desire to please and connect and be praised and love-love-loved is so strong and powerful, and sometimes my heart breaks for her, because her usual behavior is constantly cutting off that connection she craves so deeply.  And not only craves, but she is gifted at creating that connection -- when she isn't busy cutting it apart again.

I look forward to the next phase in our relationship, when we're not just in this constantly chaotic "what is a family, am I going to be here in the morning, how to not hit" phase.  When we can search deeper into her own self, and find the "off" button for some of her chaos.  Or Mark pointed out, we don't even need to turn it all the way off; if she could move from, say, eleven down to seven, we could all live with it.  Noise and enthusiasm make for happy kids even if the parents are a little tired; children who smash their heads into things, and as they crash their way through life whenever they careen off another body they think that person is trying to purposefully hurt them, are not happy themselves and their parents are not able to be happy with them.

Meanwhile, tonight we dared eat dinner at the resort to celebrate Thanksgiving, on the veranda overlooking a little decorative lake  We had Indian food, not turkey.  There was significant difficulty with the "stay in your seat and don't fall in the pond" rule; it was like solving a puzzle to keep all the food and drinks where the children couldn't spill them (one inch of water at a time!); and both girls started crying hysterically when the party next door set off fireworks.  As Mark pointed out, it would have been a lot more relaxing with drinks (more than an inch deep!) in our hands and significantly fewer children!  But I think it makes a statement about our family that we're taking our kids to a fancy restaurant at all:  We are saying that we think our children are beautiful and they're worth it.  We are saying that we're willing to teach them what they need to know to be successful in society.  We are saying that it's a special day and our time is most special when it's all together.

And Mark and I are saying that we're up for an adventure.  Which is something we are good at doing together!

Travel Notes V: Murchison Falls National Park

Travel Notes V: Murchison Falls National Park

A safari van came to pick us up at Budongo Forest for the last phase of our trip.  The really exciting part.... it was a NINE passenger van, with luggage space in back.  You will notice that we have six bottoms between us, and all of our other cars had no more than four spaces for bottoms to go!  It was a relief to let the kids stretch out, wiggle, and nap.  The other exciting thing about it being a genuine safari van was that the top opened up, so when we saw animals we could just stand up and look out the top, with no windows or car parts in the way.  On our final drive out of the park, we were looking for lions, and everyone ended up standing up to scout out the top the whole time.  I guess it's safe to tell Daddy, because no one fell out and died!  They were good hold-er-on-ers.  Except for Buttercup, who was in Gramma's arms, but kept pushing the arms off in order to "me do it," and then declared that she wanted to "go dere" to the other side of the van, sans Gramma!

As we drove into the park, we stopped to hike to the Top of the Falls.  This park is down in a valley and at a lower elevation than most of Uganda, and it is mostly open savanna, so it is MUCH more hot than what we are used to!  Even my little African girls were melting in the sun.  To get to the lookout was a short little hike, but it was steep and it was hot, and we were all flagging.  Hibiscus somehow got the walking stick from one of the guides, and she looked like a little Zulu warrior princess, striding along with her long bare legs and her stick!  She is actually short for her age, but she has that long-limbed build that makes her look tall and elegant.  Gramma had brought sunhats for all the children, which added considerably to the adorable-ness factor as well!

We admired the viewpoints and were headed back when a rainstorm hit us.  And can it ever rain!  It's like a bathtub coming down from the sky, except so nice and cool and refreshing!  I would have actually enjoyed it, except I was worried about the camera not appreciating a bath.  We actually had a terrible time with cameras on this trip.  My husband had brought a new telephoto lens for our DSLR, specifically for animal photos but it also captures the children's faces very well. It took beautiful photos of the rhinos and the children playing on the first day, and then mysteriously stopped working.  Then a couple days later the lens on my parents' point-and-shoot also stopped working, and of course you can't change the lens on that one!  So we started with four camera options, and ended with only two, with our favorite ones going out of service!

Of course, the rainstorm ended right as we got back to the car.  We regrouped and headed back out to the close-to-the-falls viewpoint, and saw a beautiful rainbow.

Then we went up to our camp, which is the only non-five-star accommodation in the park.  The Red Chilli Rest Camp has a large grass-thached restaurant area, room for pitching tents, wall tents, and a few concrete bandas.  We were given the key to a family banda, which has a small common area, two small bedrooms, and a not-very-clean bathroom with a very large shower.  It was perfect for us, and really a relief to not have to go back and forth between two different areas.  However, it turned out that they had told us that six people wouldn't fit in a family banda (despite there being six beds!) and that we needed to book two bandas, but then the manager forgot to give us the key to the second one until we were busy going to bed.  Now, when you are busy putting three wildly over-tired children to bed while organizing all your equipment for the next day and hanging a clothesline around the room for damp clothing, do you really want to go carry half your stuff across the lawn to a different banda?  No, you do not.  Maybe if you have the kind of grandparents who enjoy admiring their cute grandchildren from a distance, but we are very VERY blessed with grandparents who do things like take a shower with the children and get down on her hands and knees so the girls can do her shampooing!   The toilet might not have flushed properly, but we got some really good mileage out of that giant shower area!

Also, the Rest Camp had a laundry station.  After five days of travelling, complete with an unexpected beach, everything we had was REALLY DIRTY.  One of those random things that drives me crazy is dirty clothes. I don't like feeling it on my body, and I don't like seeing it on my children.  I don't mind children (or me) GETTING dirty, but I hate cleaning up but not having clean clothes to put on.  So it was a great relief to fill up some tubs and attack those clothes!  However, it also inspired me to say a very passionate prayer of thanksgiving that our apartment is equipped with a washing machine!  Three children make a LOT of laundry for one mama!  

The camp is just some buildings on a hill in the wilderness, which means that there are all kinds of animals all over.  They seemed much more accustomed to humans than in Budongo Forest.  There were warthogs sleeping under the trees, just feet from the restaurant, the baboons looked even more avaricious and greedy, and apparently hippos like to graze in front of our cabin at night!  Once when I came out of the banda to join the family in the restaurant, I had to wait for a family of warthogs to finish wandering by.  We didn't actually see any hippos, but the possibility of them being there was another excellent reason to not be lodged in separate bandas!  But apparently the hippos and the warthogs keep the grass down, because there was a nice small lawn in front of our patio, and the children had some chances to play velcro-ball and Mother May I, with their wonderful playing grandparents.

The theme of these wilderness resort restaurants seems to be that they offer three options for dinner, and you order your meals and the time you want them ahead of time.  Dining out for days on end, especially with little children, is never easy, but this practice makes it go a lot more smoothly.  It means as soon as you manage to drag your crew to the dining area, the staff brings over your meal within a few minutes.  We just ate everything family style, which meant that we passed the plates around and everyone got some of whatever they wanted.  Including things like two kids hovering over a plate while Emerson carefully picks out the noodles and Hibiscus carefully picks out the vegetables while the parents yell things like "please use your fork!" and are ignored.  Except Hibiscus didn't like the peppers, but instead of avoiding them she speared them and headed them off towards what she deemed a more appreciative mouth, so suddenly there was a sauce-soaked chunk of green pepper hovering over Buttercup's head toward's Bubba's cheek, or diving over all the water glasses at my forehead.

While we're on the subject, I have mentioned that the children are becoming much better behaved and controlled, but they still get the Five-o-Clock Exhaustion.  Especially Hibiscus.  By the end of the day, she is just a walking, manic disaster.  And clumsy!!!  Oh my goodness, is she ever clumsy!  Her fork is on her head and her elbow is in her dinner and her feet are up by her head, and as she walks across the room everything within a ten-foot radius magically falls on the floor or becomes crooked or breaks into a million pieces.  I have read books wherein the heroine is awkward and pathetic as a child -- I think Anne of Green Gables was one -- and how they are always being scolded.  Living with a child like that, I suddenly have an overwhelming empathy for the children AND the scolding parents.  I understand that she has poor motor control and poor impulse control and her brain neurons aren't all connected in the right place, but somewhere in the sea of broken glass and puddles of water and a sibling crying because their dinner ended up on the floor (how did she even get to that side of the table?!), the empathizing-with-Anne-Shirley patience is about worn out.

The next morning we had to get up EVEN EARLIER than our Budongo Forest early, to be across the river soon after dawn.  I will let you imagine our early morning craziness!  

We picked up our pre-ordered breakfast, including two styrofoam cups of delicious tea.  Mmm, drinking tea makes everything better!  Usually our van would drive us the quarter-mile or so to the river, but the car ferry was supposedly grounded so the driver kept the car on the other side, where we needed it.  So we all walked down to the boat yard, where the driver was very surprised and pleased to see us there on time.  Actually, we were 15 minutes after he had asked us to arrive, but still 15 minutes before the ferry left, which is early by African standards!  And then it turned out that the car ferry did leave that morning, but after that we took small boat shuttles.

We went over to the other side and organized ourselves to get into our car.  Gramma had most of our luggage, I had the girls with me, and Bubba was carrying one of our lunch bags in his hand.  Hibiscus called out "look, baboon!" and squashed closer to me, but Bubba didn't hear, and before any of us knew what happened the baboon ran right up to him, grabbed the bag out of his hand and ran off with it.  He quickly tore it open, gobbled up all our chapatis, and ran off with the other packet of food.  Cue the children's pandemonium!!  But they WANTED the chapatis, they wanted to EAT them, they didn't WANT the baboon to get our chapatis!!!  Luckily Gramma had the other bag of food and we still had some breakfast left, because there wasn't anywhere to get any!  But the beloved chapatis were very much gone.  

Now all the children hate baboons passionately, which I am not sure we adults disagree about!  Hibiscus is determined to punish the entire species by not allowing anyone to take their picture any more!  I still had visions of them grabbing the children and plucking their eyes out, which I did not share with the children in question, but they suddenly became pretty good about not wandering far from an adult's side!  Gramma and I took the children off to the potty house a little distance away, and we saw the baboons closing in.  I personally think they were eyeing Buttercup's fat little legs hanging out of the wrap and debating whether it was another Red Chilli breakfast package!  The baboons didn't care when the children screeched at them, but I used my best "bad dog" voice a few times and they slunk away.  When Bubba was with us, he only had to stand up and loom a little bit, and they decided to keep their distance!  It was a relief to know that they really would be intimidated.

Finally we got in the van and drove around looking for animals.  The scenery was also beautiful; a wide savanna, but dotted with trees and bushes, and rolling hills in every direction and blue mountains in the distance.  We were off before 7:30 AM, so it was still nice and cool.

We saw some elephants from a little distance, lots of giraffes close up, and herd after herd of hartebeest, Ugandan kob, and buffalo, and tiny little Oribi and dyker antelope bounding around.  We had interesting discussions about whether they are Uribi or Oridi or something else, and the girls loved the idea of dykers because they thought they were DIAPER antelope, which of course is very funny!!  We ended up at the hippo pool, with an elephant on the far side and lots of birds nearby.  We also saw some beautiful birds, both large spectacular ones, and small colorful, graceful ones.

When we got back across the river to the camp, everyone was very ready for their lunch.  However, they also had too many wiggles and wouldn't settle down for a nap or even a rest, which we thought would be a good idea after waking up before 6.  When does a parents' opinion about sleep have any validity?  We had some tantrums, but no rest.

So before anyone was ready, we headed back down to the water for our river cruise.  This was also a spectacular event, and we sat on the upper deck and saw lots of wildlife come down for a drink, bazillions of hippos relaxing in the river, crocodiles, and all kinds of birds.  The boat went right along the bank most of the time and stopped whenever we were close to something interesting, which was very nice.  The journey ended looking up at the giant and spectacular Murchison Falls.

We also had three children on TOTAL MANIC mode.  The older ones were somewhat entertained for a little while by doing their coloring books and going downstairs to the bathroom, but that did not last for the four-hour trip.  The animals probably merited a .74 second glance apiece, which also did not take up the entire trip!  One very fortuitous activity was the chance to drive the boat, which took up multiple minutes and merited actual smiles.  Gramma was an amazingly patient crayon-hander-out-er and general peace-keeper, who managed to keep all of our belongings from slipping out of little hands into the mighty river below.  Self-selected activities included putting on all the life jackets in sight and laying on the deck (underneath the 37 pairs of adult feet wandering around), bounding around wildly, and climbing the walls.  Literally.  Since the walls were what kept the children from falling into the river, this activity was not adult-endorsed, and we had the one total melt-down of the trip when I had to sit on Hibiscus while she screamed bloody murder, because whenever I got off her she plunged towards the stairs or the river.  I told you we provide entertainment everywhere we go!

And what about Buttercup?  Here, my friends, I tell you: BABYWEARING FOR THE WIN!!!  Her little feet did not even touch the deck for the entire trip, which meant she was the only child who was in no danger of falling overboard.  Since her toddler enthusiasm for "me do it" involves arching herself over backwards and flinging herself around randomly, this was necessary; I think the older children actually understood that falling overboard was highly undesirable and USUALLY made an effort to not do it!  I started Buttercup off in a hip carry where she could look around with me, but actually what she wanted to do was jump around hysterically and grab everything in sight, so we switched to a nice secure back carry, which she successfully could not even kind of jump out of for the entire four hours.  And believe me, she tried!  She wanted to color and she wanted to run around, and for all I know she wanted to go pet a hippo.  Lacking that, she put on sunglasses and she threw them down, she nibbled on cookies and dropped them down my back, she screeched and chattered.  But what was the most fascinating?  What was right in front of her.  She pulled my ponytail and grabbed my ears, and she grabbed my shirt in her little teeth and reared her head around.  It was quite something!  If that sounds annoying, it pretty much was, but we were well compensated by the part about her being out of the way and safe!

Meanwhile, the scenery was beautiful and we got to see some wonderful animals and birds.  We saw some colorful bee-eaters and kingfishers up very close (oh, how I missed my big lens!), but after I checked my birding list from the Queen Elizabeth boat ride, I was a little disappointed that I didn't have any new birds to add to it.  But soon after that discovery, we saw many Yellow Billed Kites circling overhead, and while we watched the falls some rare Rock Pranticles were on the rock next to us, and on the way back we got to see the Saddle Billed Stork, whose amazing beak is the colors of the Ugandan flag.  So my newly developing birding habit was satisfied!

We made it home.  We made it to dinner.  We even made it into bed!  Then we had to get up equally early the next morning in hopes of seeing animals on our way out of the park.

On our second game drive we did not see any new animals, and we didn't spend as much time close up.  We saw some new and beautiful scenery on another side of the park, and the driver said that lions like to hang out in the underbrush in that area.  Apparently the lions didn't feel like hanging around the road that day, which wasn't terribly surprising, given that they have a giant park to meander through and no other guides had seen a lion near the road.  We all had fun hanging out the top of the van looking for them, though!

Once we were out of the park, it was still a long drive home.  We got to see another small waterfall when we crossed back over the Nile, and some more monkeys and baboons, and some small villages with traditional mud and thatched houses.  The driver said the villages were small and spread apart because this area had been decimated by insurgencies and warfare, which has only recently been resolved.

Apparently our whole trip was just the right length!  On our last two journeys, when hearing that a car was coming, the children asked where we were going and cried out that they didn't want to go back to Ggaba, they wanted to see more animals.  However, on our last drive, the children were whining that they were tired and they wanted to go home.

Wish granted!  We made it home and back to our own beds before dark, with time to run around the yard (for the kids) and take a trip to market (for me).  And I had that pleasant sensation of familiarity and relief of being in a place that I knew, with the familiar fields and goats and rutted roads around me.  I had been feeling tired and disconnected about the non-home-ness of my Ugandan home recently, so perhaps the whole trip was worth it just for the sense of "coming home" to my African home.

Budongo Forest, continued

Just about then we did finally find a group of chimps feeding, and we were able to spend the full hour with them.  The guide was very knowledgeable about their behavior and we got to learn about what we were seeing.  The chimps were very calm around us, and sometimes watched us but didn't mind if we talked or moved around.  We saw babies and a huge male moving through the trees.  As I said, I had never sat around and imagined communing with the primates, but it was a magical experience.  They were beautiful and powerful animals, and in so many ways amazingly similar to ourselves, and in other ways so exotic and special.  My neck got very cramped looking up into the trees, but other than that, the hour passed very quickly, and then it was time to walk home.

We had also signed up for a long birding walk.  I thought that two of us could go chimp-ing and two of us could go for a different kind of forest walk, and all three adults could get out into the forest.  Of course I kind of wanted to be the lucky one who got out twice, but I wasn't counting on it.  When we arrived and were preparing the kids for someone leaving for a while, my mother warned them that "Mama would be gone for a little while and Gramma will stay with you, and then later Gramma will be gone and Mama will stay with you."  My father had been pretty frustrated with the kids' (dare I say?) chimp-like behavior, so I agreed and understood that he might not be willing to deal with them by himself for several hours.  However, after the chimp walk, he said his foot was bothering him a little bit, and that he would stay with the kids while we went out.  What a treat for me!

They were being a bit of a handful, but we have all been very pleased and fortunate that it has been pretty ordinary busy, lively kid behavior.  The violent sibling rivalry that dominated the first few weeks has faded into ordinary competitiveness and play, and the tantrums that have overwhelmed our lives for so long have become occasional instead of constant.  What is left is three children who are very lively, active, imaginative, possessive, curious, and very noisy!  Fortunately, we were the only guests staying at the forest lodge that weekend, so there was no one else to bother.  My observation is that the local people have no patience for children being rude or disobedient, but they do not mind children simply acting like children.  I think they all have little children or siblings or cousins at home, and they just smile at the children playing the drums for sale in the gift shop, swinging off the railing, and stopping them to eagerly tell them some disjointed but suddenly important story.

The animals are most active early in the morning and in late afternoon, and in late afternoon our guides seemed to be MIA, so we again woke up before 6 in order to leave by 7, soon after the sun was up.  Fortunately for everyone, the children seemed to have figured out the routine and the disappearing mama after the first time, and they were much calmer for their morning with Bubba.  He was very proud of how much Hibiscus helped get her little sister ready, eating the big hotel breakfast took up a good chunk of the morning, and then the children worked on their projects and played until we got back.

The birding walk was very different from the chimp walk.  I have been really enjoying looking at all the different birds that we see here in Uganda, but this was my first time on a real birding walk.  Apparently I did it all wrong!  Mom brought binoculers for both of us, but we were also supposed to bring our bird identification book, notebook, and pencil to record what we saw.  The ridiculous thing was that I actually had all of these things, but I left them in the room because I didn't think I'd use them in the forest!  Oops!

We walked very slowly, and spent a long time on the road, because we could see the birds in the treetops more easily.  Again, the guide was very knowledgeable, and shared information not only about the birds, but also about her own story and her life (as we asked and asked).  I think she was kind of bemused about how we were totally inexperienced, but then enjoyed showing us things that were totally new to us.  I get the impression that many people stop at the Budongo Forest on their way in or out of the main park to do a chimp walk, but fewer people actually spend time there, and maybe only real birders stop to do a bird walk!  There are a spectacular number of species in the forest, including some that are endemic to only that exact area.  We were fortunate to see the little brown groundbird, Purvells illadopsis, which only lives in this exact forest.  All in all, we saw twelve bird species, and clearly heard and could identify five more.  Some of them were glimpses, but other ones we got to watch through the binoculars for a long time.  Although there are so many birds in the forest, they are very difficult to see because there is so much vegetation.

I think possibly getting into birding could be an interesting hobby.  I am not so naturally interested in all the specific names and details, but I really enjoyed having something else to look for and examine in the woods.  I felt like I am getting to know and be involved with nature much more closely as I learn to know the birds.  In some ways, I enjoy seeing the birds even more than the animals, because they are so prevalent.  We can see and hear birds all the time!

We had another special bonus on our walk.  The day before, we had walked for a couple of hours before we got near to the chimps, and then they were feeding very quietly, but while we were birding we heard the chimps whooping, calling, and drumming right near to us!  They were talking to each other and getting ready to cross the road.  It was amazing to hear all their different sounds and communications so near to us.  Even though we weren't officially tracking the chimps we saw several of them as well, and through most of our walk we could hear them talking in the distance.  I was happy to get to experience a new side of the chimpanzees, and I was even more happy that my mother got a chance to experience them.

Well, since I am not winning any journalism awards for this disjointed entry, I will skip around and describe the lodge a little bit.  We debated whether to spend one night or two, and we were all very happy that we spent two days.  The lodge was tucked into the forest in a very natural and beautiful way.  There was one fairly large building with the kitchen and administration, with local-wood couches set up inside, and dining on the veranda.  As I said, it seemed like most visitors didn't make it past that main area, but then we followed little paths into the woods where the bandas (cabins) were tucked in the trees.  I think there were smaller ones, but we were lodged into one building with a room on either side -- and unfortunately no door in the middle, but we could knock or call back and forth.  The rooms were clean and they were set up to be fairly elegant but also made with natural materials and fitting into the forest environment.

There were nice porches and chairs, but we couldn't take much advantage of them, because of the baboons!  Since the lodge was just in the forest, the animals could come by any time they wanted to.  It sounds like most of the truly dangerous animals, like leopards, are very shy of people, but baboons are real pests and not shy at all.  Apparently they would get into anything we left out and ruin it.  Also, they do eat some meat and love to hunt monkeys, so we didn't want to let any of the children run around alone, especially Buttercup.  The baboons apparently know better than to take on an adult human, but also know that they are bigger and stronger than little children!

There was also a giant row of safari ants making a path between their nest and their food going right across the path near the lodge.  Safari ants are fascinating and cooperative creatures, and it would be interesting to stop and watch them, except they also start crawling up and biting anything that disturbs them, like people-feet.  They don't have venom, so the bites don't continue to be irritated, but it hurts like the dickens when they suddenly start crawling along and biting over and over again!  We all got some bites, but pants tucked into socks and close-toed shoes solved most of the problem.  However, Buttercup kept getting ants mysteriously in her legs or arms that started biting her at totally random times, like the middle of dinner.  We don't know how they got there at all, since Buttercup always got carried over the ants!  It kept our bigger children close-ish to us, though, because they didn't want to go over the ants by themselves, so there was no running off to the cabins when we didn't expect it!