The Straw Maze

My youngest child turned 18 when I was 42 years old. That's a young age to be an empty nester, but I was willing to try. The only problem with that was that by then I had a little grandson with me. No empty nest, and I wouldn't have traded it for the world. Here we are 15 years later, and the little grandson is 18 and out of the house. Empty nest? No. I just traded for another little grandson - and his family. We are eight and the bull dog.

Little Man is four, and has a personality the size of Texas. He was my friend for sure the day I promised to take him to the straw maze. Tiny Dancer was going to come along, but she was sick and couldn't come.

The straw maze is at a local fruit stand, and is made of bales stacked three high. In the occasional corner, a bale sticks out so the kids can stand up on it at look over the wall. Grown up tall people can see down to the little noggins, and little eyes can look up and see comforting grown up tall people. It works. It was mid-morning, and he was ready for adventure.


He wasn't going to go all the way in alone at first, so he kept telling me to hurry up. "Go on ahead, Little Man. I can see you!"




Hey, this is getting fun! Do you see the tunnel behind him? I'm talking about the tunnel that is about 3 feet high. The one he talked me into crawling through with him. The one that nearly killed me. There was a nice straw floor over the rocks, but it was pretty thin. I'm not. It was kind of narrow too. I'm not.


He made it all the way to the middle to the straw stack he could climb up. He wasn't entirely sure about that. It was his first experience with straw, and learned that it could be a little slippery. It's also a little pokey on the hands. He was satisfied that he made it to the top, but he wanted me to come lift him down. He was tough and did it himself though, and it gave him confidence. Like he needs more of that.


OK, now this is getting fun. Do you know how fast a small kid can run in a circle? Pretty fast! The little scarey dolls hangin from various spots didn't even worry him anymore. He flew right past them.


This is a seriously posed picture, because even though they didn't worry him as much, he still didn't want one for his best friend. This guy was ugly! The sun was still too bright to look toward it for more than a split second too. He had places to go and ghouls to see.

What a face! I had to put this one in just because it's so goofy looking. Call me insensitive.


Now this is what I'm talking about! This is the king of the hill. Check out the muscles and the tough guy sneer and tell me this isn't a super hero. Granny was a super hero too, cause I took him. I'm his best friend when his mom isn't around -- and his dad has gone to work -- and his brother and sisters are in school -- and Grandpa is at work -- and the dog is asleep.