Letting the Country Boy Out

Isaac had such a blast this Saturday. If you haven't seen the previous post or the video at the end of it, go there first. As soon as we arrived he wanted to be a part of everything! He and Matt's boys (our friends from church) were off and running before we even got to the creek.

Isaac wanted to fish initially and even got to catch one. I had to cast for him, but as soon as the worm hit the water, a fish hit it! Isaac worked the reel himself pulled it in - a baby channel cat about the length of my hand!Perfect size for him.

Soon, though, he and the boys decided to do some exploring. They mostly stayed in sight but you could tell he was having a blast doing what little boys are wired to do. They climbed up the banks holding roots, poked around the bushed and inspected anything they could find. For a time they got out of sight past the bank. Later Matt and I would learn that they had found a deer blind and had even climbed up in it (about 20' up a shaky ladder!)

I did give Isaac a stern warning about not straying and never doing that without Papa around
but in my heart I was secretly a proud papa. Proud of my adventurous, fearless boy. I was excited, too. Excited to see him getting to taste the wide open spaces. There are no such creek beds in Isaac's neck of the woods and straying out the front door is far more dangerous than anything he got into there in the woods.

My brothers and I tasted it in Arkansas at the farm. We even found our wild places in the ditch that ran behind our neighborhood and in the empty lots that still had trees that could be climbed. I'm sure that Isaac will find his own. I'm also sure that I'll enjoy the little taste of my own childhood that I'll get from watching him!