Yep - it's the boys turn.
Now, after dealing with all girls for the first part of motherhood, I ended up getting this boy. Now, I can tell you, that I love my kids, but there really is a different bond between a boy and his mom. Whereas, I got very excited about my daughter getting married, I had a panic attack when my son announced. I guess that is all tied to the old saying "a daughter is a daughter all her life, a boy is a son til he takes a wife". Yep, I was losing my boy - I was just sure of it. But, that's not the story I want to tell.
I'm going to tell you about a trip we took. A trip to Cody, Wyoming. I think Rodger was 14 or 15 years old. Crystal was working for SkyWest and I decided I wanted us to go on an adventure. We got passes and benefits on Skywest planes and so we took a small 30-seater plane to Cody, Wyoming. It was actually outside of Cody that we were staying. We stayed at a guest ranch called Elephant Head Lodge - named after some rock right there. This guest lodge was right on the east entrance of Yellowstone, but because of the crazy fires going on there, we couldn't enter - so we just hung out in the area of the
lodge and Cody. We stayed in cabins; our first night in a small cabin that had two beds and a black widow sleeping in the lamp next to my head. The second and third night, we stayed in this cool larger cabin with two beds and a loft with another bed. Raja (as he is called by his family)stayed up there in the loft. There were no TV's in these cabins and it was quite the fun excursion I have to say. The first day there, we went horseback riding. That was rather awesome - this was only my kids second time on a horse and the first time, the horses just followed each other. This time, the horses were a little more independent. Plus, we went high in the mountains and such.
The second day, we went on a river trip (sadly, Crystal was sick and had to miss it). OK - this was pretty dang awesome!! We traveled down this river and over some small rapids - it was lots of fun. At the end of the journey, when we were getting out of our rafts, Raja found this adorable baby frog. All the smaller kids were wanting to touch it, but, he was rather protective and held it the fifty miles back to our cabin. When we got back to the lodge area, and Raja wanted to let his frog go in the small amount of water that was there. So he let his little frog go. We went to dinner at another lodge and on our way back, Raja wanted to see if he could find his little frog in the pond and said that he would just walk back to the cabin. No problem - let him out. So, I start driving my little rental car away and something or someone made me slow down for some reason. Just as I am speeding up, I look in my rear view mirror and I see my son, my little baby boy, RUNNING FULL BORE towards the car and he is white as a sheet!! I slam on the brakes and start trying to figure out what the problem is - by this time, he's at the door and trying to open it. I look to the left and there is a HUGE grizzly bear about fifty feet away just standing on the grass. I start yelling to open the door and KayeLynn is asking what the problem is. Crystal starts chanting, "just open the door, just open the door" over and over again. When the door opens, he just vaults himself over and onto KayeLynn and we drive away to the cabin.
That freaking bear hung around for about two more hours while everyone staying at the lodge sat and watched him. It was pretty dang cool to sit and watch this grizzly bear!! These two stupid bikers were trying to scare him away - the bear was bored with them.
We ended our adventure by going to the Wild Bill Museum and then getting bumped from about five flights. We did manage to make it home that evening, so all was good.
That is my James Rodger story. From that day on, his nickname has been Grizzly Jim - true and gentle mountain man!!
Now, after dealing with all girls for the first part of motherhood, I ended up getting this boy. Now, I can tell you, that I love my kids, but there really is a different bond between a boy and his mom. Whereas, I got very excited about my daughter getting married, I had a panic attack when my son announced. I guess that is all tied to the old saying "a daughter is a daughter all her life, a boy is a son til he takes a wife". Yep, I was losing my boy - I was just sure of it. But, that's not the story I want to tell.
I'm going to tell you about a trip we took. A trip to Cody, Wyoming. I think Rodger was 14 or 15 years old. Crystal was working for SkyWest and I decided I wanted us to go on an adventure. We got passes and benefits on Skywest planes and so we took a small 30-seater plane to Cody, Wyoming. It was actually outside of Cody that we were staying. We stayed at a guest ranch called Elephant Head Lodge - named after some rock right there. This guest lodge was right on the east entrance of Yellowstone, but because of the crazy fires going on there, we couldn't enter - so we just hung out in the area of the
The second day, we went on a river trip (sadly, Crystal was sick and had to miss it). OK - this was pretty dang awesome!! We traveled down this river and over some small rapids - it was lots of fun. At the end of the journey, when we were getting out of our rafts, Raja found this adorable baby frog. All the smaller kids were wanting to touch it, but, he was rather protective and held it the fifty miles back to our cabin. When we got back to the lodge area, and Raja wanted to let his frog go in the small amount of water that was there. So he let his little frog go. We went to dinner at another lodge and on our way back, Raja wanted to see if he could find his little frog in the pond and said that he would just walk back to the cabin. No problem - let him out. So, I start driving my little rental car away and something or someone made me slow down for some reason. Just as I am speeding up, I look in my rear view mirror and I see my son, my little baby boy, RUNNING FULL BORE towards the car and he is white as a sheet!! I slam on the brakes and start trying to figure out what the problem is - by this time, he's at the door and trying to open it. I look to the left and there is a HUGE grizzly bear about fifty feet away just standing on the grass. I start yelling to open the door and KayeLynn is asking what the problem is. Crystal starts chanting, "just open the door, just open the door" over and over again. When the door opens, he just vaults himself over and onto KayeLynn and we drive away to the cabin.
That freaking bear hung around for about two more hours while everyone staying at the lodge sat and watched him. It was pretty dang cool to sit and watch this grizzly bear!! These two stupid bikers were trying to scare him away - the bear was bored with them.
We ended our adventure by going to the Wild Bill Museum and then getting bumped from about five flights. We did manage to make it home that evening, so all was good.
That is my James Rodger story. From that day on, his nickname has been Grizzly Jim - true and gentle mountain man!!
You are wrong. KayeLynn never opened the door for him. He ended up sitting on my lap because she wouldn't let him in unless someone told her what was going on.
ReplyDeleteThat's funny - - all I remember is him vaulting into the car while you and I were yelling!! HAHA!! too funny!!
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