Thursday, July 22, 2010

The Great Outdoors

Our Annual trip to Central Oregon. What an adventure it is now that the small ones have grown into such BIG little kids. It truly is a necessary thing to camp with your kids no matter how busy you might find yourself to be. It is so important for them to see & appreciate nature, the sheer beauty of the trees and lakes. I absolutely LOVE it!
D had worked the Boy up for this trip, he was so wound up & ready to go once we got there to fish, hunt, kill ANYTHING. He had D going from sun up til sun down with demands of fishing every water way, hunting coyote, and killing a porcupine. He insisted on wearing Camoflauge, so he used his army costume I made for halloween, a camo tee D got @ walmart, a hat he found @ BiMart with a badger target on the front & fake blood splatter on the back. He used his school backpack, which was camo, that I had just gotten at the outlets. He was ready to HUNT WITH DAD. That is, until one night when D brought out the predator call at dark during marshmallow roasting & sounded it, sparking a response from a coyote which spooked the Boy and had him rapidly withdrawing his bravery front. He got so upset, repeating "I'm not ready! Dad..stop! I'm not ready!" He didn't sleep too well that night. But, when it came to fishing...that Boy did nothing but speak, eat & DREAM fishing.
On day 2, D took him out to place a digital tree camera in the woods. He wanted to catch some deer or other critters in the cam. Ended up, after 2 nights of leaving the cam up, they retrieved it only to find of 12 pics taken, 10 are of D's face setting it up or taking it down, with 2 that were blank, maybe a chipmunk in the brush.
Boy tried his hand at making a spear by trying very hard to whittle the end of a long stick he found with his little pocket knife. He worked at it awhile, didn't get far, but was satisfied enough to practice throwing his 'spear' at a target D placed on a tree for him.
Day 4 Boy finally caught a fish at Twin Lakes. D actually hooked it, but let the Boy reel it in. He was so proud. When they arrived back at camp, he came marching over with 2 fish on the string saying..."I wonder what's for dinner tonight!?" He showed everyone, even the dog. My Mom cooked the fish up for him and, ofcourse, we ALL had to taste his fish & comment on how delicious it was. And, soooo delicious, it was! MY BOY caught it!
Day 5, he caught another, and he was so proud. The look on a Boy's face when he has a freshly caught fish in his hand...priceless. Pure pride. Absolutely heartfelt.
When he was fishing off the bank once, a teen boy was getting out of the water & the Boy asked "Catch anthing?" The teen boy said, "Nope, but I had a few bites." Next thing I knew this boy was rigging up my sons line for him with the same thing he had on his, he said "I just want to help him get a few bites." It was so incredible seeing someone do that for my Boy. He was so happy.
D also took the boy out with his hunting blind on day 5 to wait for some coyotes. No luck. No porcupines to bat to death, no badgers. But, he did work with Boy on shooting his BB gun at an empty milk jug. To which I must brag...MY BOY is an amazing aim & straight shot. Yeah, I got me a little outdoors man. Master Caster when it comes to fishing too. I'm not bragging...just telling the absolute truth. Really.
On the last day, I took him to fish off the bank. My Dad had rigged up a spinner on his line. No bait. 'Fish Juice', so he told me Papa put on his hook. As we approached the bank, an elderly Man was bringing his boat in, and had a big Brown & Rainbow trout in his boat. He proceeded to tell Beau that he lost an even bigger one out in the water, far from where we were fishing. Boy was rather upset, but the Man assured him he had the right gear. He liked that, fished awhile before another Man fly fishing from his boat, immediately caught a fish. This had the boy a little more disgruntled. Quite the competitive little guy. He then attempted to 'fly' fish with his little rod, I had to giggle & tell him his couldn't do that with his rod, to which he replied, "Why not?" A short but later a big eagle swooped down near up and grabbed a fish right out of the water, his face pinched up and he lost his cool "EVERYBODY IS GETTIN' A FISH BUT ME!" and nearly started to cry. But, Big Boy's don't cry. It made me giggle some more. What goes through their little minds? I had to put a stop to his casting at one point or he would never stop, he did not like this and said, "I am just gonna tell Dad that you need more sleep!"
When it was time to leave, the day we had to return home, He just could not comprehend WHY we needed to go home. He started to cry. Almost made me cry. He said, " I just want to stay here forever!"
Boy. I get you. I get it. I love that you love nature. I love that you have so much passion for the outdoors. I love that you caught some fish, and shared with everyone. I love that you bonded with Daddy and Grandpa on a whole new level. I LOVE YOU, BOY!