Like Father, Like Son

I love Abilene State Park.

I know, it's no Redwood Forest, but hey, we're in west Texas --we don't complain.

We spent the beautiful warm day at the park. A short drive down to Buffalo Gap and we were there. At the Ranger's Station we received a park map. Jack, being his father's child, immediately asked to see it.

He took it, studied it, asked questions and boldly led us down the Elm Creek Nature Trail in search for a pond where we would feed the ducks stale bread.

And we're off:



Hannah (forgot to tell you.) came down for the weekend to cheer us up after Mike's departure. Sweet isn't she? Here she was teaching Jack some old Indian trick about how to tell which path to take when you get to a fork in the "path."

He loved learning a new skill which would further his knowledge of trail blazing.

Ya know what they say: "All play and no work makes Jack a lost boy."

Or something like that.

"We're getting closer!" -I should have been counting how many times I heard that.

"We are riiiiiiiiiiiiiiight here."

Five steps later: "Now we are here."

Austin was just wanting to keep moving, he didn't really care where we were.

Hannah was with us, come on, like the kids were going to get through the day without a posed shot of them with their walking sticks.

pshhh. No way man.

Creek on the map?

Check.

Double check.

Ponce De Leon got a little tired.

"Keep going straight ahead, Mom."

Jack made it look fun. Ty had to give it a try. Jack begged for the map back.

Arrival at our destination, and... no ducks.

Oh well.

Next we found an old bridge where we stopped and played a riveting game of Pooh sticks.

I lost every single time.

Jack had left the map sitting in the stroller. See it in the picture?

No?

Oh no! Where did it go?

[Gasp!!]

"The map, the map!" -His words, not mine.

"I've got to save the map!" -again, not mine.

Branches nor stickers would deter this young Rand McNally.

He fishes it out. Ty stood by for moral support.

But I'm afraid he was too late.

By shear luck we found our way back.