"Mom" I feel like a real Man!!

John and I went to Deer Valley for 3 day's. It was a long awaited break. John's Dad was kind enough to stay with our kids with Ashlee acting as his assistant. Between the 2 of them the goal was to keep Syd and Connor alive. I came home on Fri. and was warmly greeted by Syd, Ash, and Gpa. But Connor was not home. "Where is Connor" I ask. "Oh hes at the club house at the bottom of the culdesac" Hmnm. I don't know of the club house.. I walked all over the neighborhood knocking on doors, investigating back yards No boys, No club house, No Connor. That panic was setting in a bit. This is unusual behavior for Connor. He's easy to locate and never goes beyond the neighborhood boundaries. I couldn't contain the fear. Syd said that the club house was by the railroad tracks, near a park. That spot is way to far for him to wander and if he did................I had Ashlee get in her car with syd to go check out the park area. She called me and couldn't find him anywhere. It's now been a good 30 min. Do I call the police?? I tried to be cool, I asked syd again, she said by the railroad tracks. She seemed quite certain. I grabbed my neighbor and we headed in the direction of Mr. Glad's farm. Across a busy street towards a field, and abandoned railroad tracks. I yelled and screamed and heard nothing. Mr. Glad just so happened to be driving by and we flagged him down. "Have you seen our boys?" Oh yes, they had wood, Hammers, nails and power tools. He had that smile that comforted me. He knew these boys were just being boys, the old fashioned way that they don't get to be anymore. I said "where are they, where is their club house?" He said, " not sure, but if I were a little boy, I would be down in that field to the right under the Big tree!" As I'm walking toward the tree that seemed so far away, I had flashbacks to my childhood days growing up on a farm, with a field and trees all over. I remember leaving in the morning on adventures and being gone all day. I remembered building forts and palaces in trees and ditches. It brought back that age old feeling of good clean old fashioned (cant believe my childhood seems old fashioned) Fun. As we approached the tree, We spotted our boys. They built the best little tree house. They hammered wood and made a platform to sit on, it had a "lookout point" and a rope swing, one boy brought the R.I.P. headstones to scare off intruders. When I laid eyes on my boy, the feeling of wanting to yell at him melted away when I saw the layers of black dirt smeared all over his body. I could have carved on his cheek "Clean me" with my fingernail. It was a heartwarming find. We had a talk with the boys about safety and informing parents where they were. I gave connor the walkie talkies and our communication worries were all sorted. The next day Connor said,

"Mom, I feel like a real man!" "why ?" I said. "Because Ive never built anything before and now Ive built a tree house!" I'm thankful for the field in our suburbia. I'm glad that our boys could enjoy the outdoors and be creative! I'm glad I found Connor. I need to not worry so much!!