Our very own bear hunt

One of my nephew's & niece's favorite books is "We're Going on a Bear Hunt."

It has quickly become one of Caleb's favorites as well, as it leads a family of five, plus beloved dog, on a bear hunt through grassy fields, dark forests, muddy riverbanks, and treacherous snowstorms.

This morning as Caleb and I were wandering around the yard, he took off running toward the woods behind our house. I have never ventured into these woods in the six years I've lived in this house.

Because I love my son so very much, I followed into no man's land. It felt just like a scene from this children's book, when the family enters a dark forest and stumbles and trips over broken limbs.

I repeated the lines from the beautiful story over and over and over to make the tale come alive for Caleb.
"We're going on a bear hunt. We're going to catch a big one. What a beautiful day. We're not scared."
"Uh-oh. A forest, a big dark forest. We can't go over it, we can't go under it. Oh no. We've got to go through it."
And we stumbled and we tripped over branches. Caleb loved it.

Until finally he realized that our make-believe adventure wouldn't end in us finding a bear (thank goodness). And with that, he got bored so we headed on home.

What a beautiful day.