5 years, 4 months.

Dear Jack,

You are I are Southerners; born and bred. We are rough, tough, and dangerous. So while Mommy buys groceries on Saturday mornings, you and I go look for trouble… I mean, adventure.

This past Saturday we decided to climb some mountains around our neighborhood. Both of these “mountains” were technically large piles of dirt that had been pushed in piles while the neighborhoods were being developed.

I actually filmed some webisodes of my show Uncle Nick’s Enchanted Forest on them…

As I mentioned last week, when you and I get together, we are always dangerous… we just don’t get hurt.

On our way up the mountains, which were very steep, I let you lead the way- so if you stumbled and fell, I could catch you.That’s exactly what happened at one point.

And on the way down the mountains, I led the way- again, I could catch you if you started sliding.

We noticed there was a 3 or 4 foot deep trench that was dug out leading up to the base of one of the mountains. You immediately decided it was in your best interest as an explorer to jump across this trench, back and forth as we journeyed.

I was very surprised at your ability to jump across these wide trenches. You are quite agile!

After a couple hours of traversing across the unpredictable landscape of suburban Tennessee, we decided to finish off the morning by throwing rocks into a huge mud puddle in the parking lot next to where I parked my Honda Element.

When I asked you what your favorite part of the morning was, you replied, “What we’re doing right now.”

I took that as a compliment. Despite the high-octane excursions we had just encountered, you could appreciate the time we just stood there next to each other, throwing gravels into water, watching the mud stir up in the water like storm clouds.

But you had one more idea in mind before we left to go back home and help Mommy unpack the groceries from Sprouts:

“Daddy, can we drive through that puddle?”

My dependable and paid-off 2004 Honda Element with 155,000 miles and a salvaged title is only worth $500 at this point. So I figured, what’s the worst that could happen?

The answer: just the need for a car wash.

And that, ended up truly being your favorite part of our morning together.

Love,

Daddy