the wild things hunt

We are finishing up a big local holiday. Most people spend the holiday traveling and shopping (or both) ...we did neither.  In my book, traveling and shopping with 1.2 billion of my closest friends does not equal a holiday. 

We did enjoy having Matt around a bit more than normal and the highlight (for the boys) was probably the "wild things hunt".  Matt talked it up big the night before... going on a big adventure, just the boys, to do some exploring.  Somehow Isaac got in his head that they were going to find some wild life and he started calling it "the wild things hunt". 

Life in a multi-million person city does not lend itself to wild life hunting.  I'm extra grateful for all the freedom to run and explore in our apartment complex but let's face it, it's hardly wild.  The complex has a full time gardener for goodness sakes.  [And he is a treasure - works as a team with his wife and I knew they'd be good friends of ours after our first encounter... when my boys followed him back and forth, back and forth watching him mow the lawn and he just grinned and patiently waited for them at every turn.  Now he's on Luke's 'top 10 favorite people' list!]

Anyways, back to the wild things hunt.

Matt loaded Isaac and John Paul on the electric bike and they were off.  [Luke was voted too-little for wild things hunting.  He stayed home with the girls.  Next time, buddy.]

About ten minutes down the road they turned onto a less used portion of greenway that gradually becomes crumbly dirt path and heads down towards the convergence of two rivers. 

Posing at the park area where they left the bike.  Our city has some really beautiful public spaces.  Not wild, but beautiful.  So thankful. 

Boys + big sticks = happiness?  Is this some sort of secret equation?  Isaac seems to have a built in big-stick-finding-sensor and John Paul is bound and determined to be just like big bro.

Alas, no wild things.  But construction equipment was a happy alternative.

And always incredibly easy to find!