Teachers rule.
My wife, her mom and my step-dad are like my favorite people in the world and they deal with weird mini-adult wannabes all day. They rule and I couldn't deal. We used to do middle-school trips to Europe as "chaperones" cuz Lisa (my wife not step-dad) is bestest friends with the french teacher. Free rides to a dozen countries with accommodation and meals comped and it was barely worth it. Weird when they are as big as me and act like American middle-schoolers... what was I thinking?
I pretty much came home after the Tetons and set up base camp here in Oregon. I fished really hard for the next couple years while still calling myself a student if I needed to. taken a few trips to Alaska, Belize, Australia, but been playing in Idaho and Oregon and feeling like there is so much to explore right here still.
Avery is 7 now. Regan is 4 - (pr. "Reagan" like the pres). Awesomest little girls I could ever have. They are teaching me to play with dolls and that only a gruff voice is needed in some conflicts. All three make me better as a real person everyday instead of some guy who could just live out of his truck and be "left the hell alone" with a smile.
We do a family camp event every year or so. My wife's idea of camping is room service. And with them it's my idea as well... so I'm not fishing as much I used too. But how can a guy keep up with 300+ days a year on the river and pay a mortgage?
... but they all dig that dad goes out and gets dirty and sleeps on logging roads for a weekend every other month or so.
I'm so lucky I actually have the perpetual feeling that I might win the lottery someday.
