On the eve of my daughter’s birth…

On the eve of my daughter’s birth, I am sitting here thinking about all the plans I have for our family.  Of course, I want us to raise a good daughter with values and respect.  Everyone wants that, but aside from that, I want to instill the values of the outdoors.  I hope that I can raise my daughter to appreciate the greatness of what we have in our world.  I was raised in the outdoors and as I said before, I was fishing well before I was a year old.  My friends continue to laugh at me (I’m not sure if it’s out of fear or they think I am joking) when I tell them that Maddie will be hiking with me before Christmas.  I hope to teach my daughter how to camp, hike, hunt, fish, and in doing them all, appreciate the outdoors.  I hope to teach her how to bounce a spinner bait off a log and split the pines shooting at a passing grouse.  I hope to teach her the creative ways that campers can start a fire (well not all of them Casey) and how to hike around or up a mountain.  I think the values that you learn from outdoors carry over for the rest of your life in the world.  I hope that she enjoys the outdoors and the time spent with friends and family the same way that I do.  I will never forget some of the great hunt and fishing trips that I grew up taking.  It wasn’t ever because we shot the biggest deer or caught the biggest fish, it was because of the memories of the day and who I spent it with.  I have seen things that God intends us to see, but too many people miss out sitting on their couches at home.  I want to share those experiences with my daughter.  So years from now when Madison Elizabeth reads this, she can know that everything that we have done or are planning to do, were all thought of before she was even born.  Also, she can know that it was friends and family of her dad’s that made him raise her this way.  Hurry up Maddie…the fun is about to start.