Another Boy's day!

Another boys day today. I am the luckiest dad in the world.

We spent the whole day outside! In the past, Maxwell always wanted to stay inside and play games, or do crafts, or watch SpongeBob Squarepants or Fairly Odd Parents.

Well, today he surprised me by wanting to stay outside the whole time.

The day started by taking all of our stuff for the garage sale from the basement to the garage. Maxwell pretty much ran around the yard playing with the dogs and playing with bubbles the whole time. We cleaned out the "big red truck" and Maxwell helped by using the dust buster quite adeptly!

We went to Wal-mart to get a present for Joseph P. for the party next Thursday, then we snuck over to McDonalds to let Maxwell play in "the tubes". We got a happy meal so my buddy could get the toy, then spent 1/2 hour timing how fast he could go from the table, up to the top, down the slide and back to the table. He set new records each time. People gave us strange glances because we were sitting outside and it was pretty cold. He didn't care, so how could I?

We came home and played outside with the dogs some more and then we got adventurous! my buddy had a rake ("so I can rake the grass, silly! Want to help me?") Who could refuse an offer like that. Who cares if the grass doesn't need raking! We ended up going pretty far into the fields behind our house looking for Maple's tennis balls, and decided to go even further to the retention pond and the streams behind. Yes, we still had the rake. We kept going and going and going. we threw stuff into the pond to see if it would float. Pieces of wood do float, rocks do not. After a while, I showed my buddy that we could see the GetGo on Hwy 22 from where we were. He looked at me and smiled his devilish smile and said "Let's go there, Daddy!".

Now we were REALLY hiking! Mud, mountains, rivers, mud, big rocks, deer tracks, mud, animal poop (my buddy thinks it was poop from the cats we see wandering, and I had to agree) and of course we can't forget the "pricklies.".

We ended up in the back parking lot of the Holiday Inn and Mommy called to see what we wanted to do for dinner. She suggested the Lamplighter. That sounded like a winner as were only only about 200 yards away! My decision to agree had nothing to do with the fact that I was probably going to have to have my buddy sit on my shoulders for the trip back to the house! Mommy met us there. We had a great dinner with mud caked shoes and jackets. We still had the rake!

Times like these keep me young. My buddy is the best hiking partner I could ever hope for!